


The Legend of Korra, Book 5: Betrayal

by drummeryu



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 55
Words: 225,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24568843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drummeryu/pseuds/drummeryu
Summary: Four months after Officer Guan has surrendered his army, Korra finally seems to have finally matured. But as one decision slowly turns friend into foe, will she able to cope with her internal struggles, while Mako goes through a personal journey nothing like he has ever experienced before.Korra learns the dark arts of bending
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

This is my first fanfic so any help would be appreciated in any way shape or form, this takes place after the comics. I’m not a particular shipper I just thought it would be a good story. I’d also like to say Ive never written anything from the perspective of a girl so please forgive me if I’m a bit off with some things. Enjoy!

* * *

_"Korra...” Jinora repeated, at a loss for words. The teenage airbender couldn’t believe what she was seeing._

_Mako’s body lay limp on the ground, motionless. The purple sheen had disappeared, but the effect was still the same. Jinora felt Mako’s spirit slowly start to drift away from his body, to the hell where condemned spirits were sent. There was nothing Jinora was capable of doing to bring him back, that would take an enormous amount of power that she definitely didn’t possess._

_"Jinora,” Korra greeted..._

***

Korra was exhausted. The past week had been incredibly stressful. Five months had passed since she had defeated Kuivera, four since Guan had surrendered and the last of the Earth Empire army was slowly giving in to the pressure from the surrounding states, as well as military threat from the Fire Nation. But Prince Wu really just didn’t make things easier. Sure, he meant well but was no help whatsoever. He was immature, and acted like a twelve-year-old! Someone needed to smack him in the face. Maybe she should do it! One good-

She sighed, rubbing her temples as she walked onto the city hall rooftop. At least there were no more meetings for a couple of days. She reached under her surprisingly long hair and scratched behind her ears. It hadn’t been this long or unattended since she had been stuck recovering in the South Pole. She had no ponytail or hair loopies, as she hated dressing up for formal appearances as of late, especially doing make-up. She would’ve found the time to cut it but Asami liked it better that way, and since she had cut it short to be practical rather than for looks, she didn’t mind.

She wanted to see Asami, so badly, but she was away on some business trip. She had always had them frequently since she acquired full control of Future Industries, but Korra only started to notice how demanding her job was when they got together. They were happy, of course, overjoyed to be in a relationship with one another, despite the Avatar dangers and low-key negative reaction from some parts of the public, but Korra and Asami couldn’t care less. In the few months they had been together, Asami had already been kidnapped twice and brainwashed once because she was close with the Avatar as well Bolin and Mako, by ex-Commander Guan and a triad. She had said some things she didn’t mean to Korra while brainwashed but it just made them even closer. It was just a hard time in general, with half of Republic City being unhoused. Zhu Li was really whipping things into shape though, and was ten times the president Raiko had ever been already. Just as well, too, or else the stability would’ve fallen a long time ago.

Korra was also growing more and more into her role now as well as the Avatar. She saw what leaving Kuivera on her own had resulted in, and she was now ready to accept whatever the world had to throw at her.

On a personal level, they were on decent terms now, but she still didn’t like Kuivera. It wasn’t their history, just her intense personality, even though that had persevered in getting Korra's friends back.  
Korra shivered from the night breeze. She thought too much. She just needed to relax, and spending time with Asami been perfect for that but, of course, she was gone. Korra lived there though, given there was enough room in the Sato mansion.

She had been having great fun with Asami lately whenever she was around, and that really eased the stress of the day. They both understood each other and Korra felt like nothing could tear the two of them apart. Every time they locked eyes, Korra’s heart fluttered, and butterflies flew all around her stomach. Her light green eyes, her caring, motherly personality in spite of the fact that she hadn’t known her own for too long, and of course, her figure. Korra got dreamy just thinking about her curves, and she had plenty to think about, as she had seen them up close, and more.

Korra opened her cyan glider and sailed across the Republic City skyline, illuminated by the glow of the spirit portal. She was still torn on whether or not it had been for better or for worse, but it was here to stay, regardless. The triads had already attacked it but slowly people were getting on better and better with the spirits. Korra pondered these thoughts and got wandered off in her own mind, contemplating everything she had done and that had happened recently.

Suddenly, she found herself flying headfirst into a building. She tried to swerve out of the way but was a half second to late and her glider clipped a balcony as she tried to do a U-turn, snapping off her right wing.

“Ahhhh!” she cried, more out of being startled than genuine fear, as she began to freefall. She was too far away from the skyscraper to grab the wall that instant by about a metre or so, and momentum meant that she wouldn’t be able to get closer and grab on without causing a mess. Adrenaline surged through her body, as she realised it was the perfect opportunity to try out a new firebending move she’d only ever used in the Avatar State, and never managed to do it on her own perfectly.

The ground was getting closer and closer, and Korra needed concentrate to pull this off. Focus. Focus! Focus, godammit! she thought to herself. She brought her knees and heels together, and her arms straight by her side, like a pencil.

30 metres. She took a deep breath, calming herself.

20 metres. Controlled, but powerful, she reminded herself.

15 metres

10 metres.

Fire blasted out from her palms and feet. Her fall slowed considerably but she still needed airbending to break her fall completely. She crashed into a dark alley awkwardly. The few people around looked into the alley towards all commotion she had caused but by this point nothing surprised them. If it didn’t hurt them then they left it be.

Korra groaned as she picked herself up. She had no time to practice anything nowadays, and that near-fatal incident proved it. It would be embarrassing if Tenzin had been there, being like a second father to her she would’ve gotten some lecture, but she was so wrecked that even something like that which would seem easy to a looker-on with her being the avatar was difficult when you were depraved of sleep. No more flying for another couple days while she got her glider repaired. She groaned and started to walk to the bay, and then the Sato Mansion, something she wasn’t used to. However, when she limped out the alley onto the dimly-lit street, she grinned, looking around and recognising where she was. She decided to pay her ex, but good friend Mako, a visit, seeing as she had just crashed into his apartment block by chance.

She knocked on Door 20, Level 4. No reply. After twenty or so seconds she knocked again, louder and for one more knock too. She frowned. It wasn’t like Mako to be inattentive. She put her hand against the wall and felt for bodies in the room. He was in there alright; she recognised his low heartbeat. He was trying to stay as quiet as possible. Hoping I’ll go away, huh? she smirked to herself. She metalbent her bracelet off of her wrist and twisted it into the door lock. It was the type used by beginners so it was particularly easy to bend. She felt his heartbeat increase from slow, steady beats to quick, rushing beats as the lock clicked open.

“Hel-“ was all she got out before a blast of fire was blazed at her. She wasn’t going to be caught off guard twice in ten minutes though and was equal to it. She unravelled the attack in mid air with an airbending swivel technique but with firebending that she had adapted herself (the move Aang uses in TLA intro, but reversed).

“Hey, what’s the big deal?!” Korra gave out as she glared across the room at Mako. He still had his fists up, his hair all over the place and half-asleep.

“Oh, it’s only you,” he sighed in relief.

“Hey Korra, great to see you, and, oh, by the way, sorry about trying to incinerate you,” Korra said sarcastically. Mako had a double-take, very uncharacteristic of him, and then glared back at her, although without much conviction.

“Says the person who just casually broke into my apartment!” Mako exclaimed, exasperated.

“You should’ve answered the door instead waiting for me to go away!” Korra countered, but then realised how weak her argument was. Breaking into someone’s apartment for a friendly visit was a little extreme, even if she meant well.

“Maybe you could have called out like-“

“Sorry,” Korra apologised, as she held her hands up. “I’ve just been nonstop all week, so I’m not thinking properly.”

Mako blinked, in surprise. He hadn’t seen much of her over the last three to four months, but the Korra from before wouldn’t have backed down. He smiled to himself, acknowledging how mature she had gotten. “Me too. I should’ve just opened the door, but I’ve been so laid down with work I thought it’d be a- a- a…“ Mako struggled as he tried to think up of the right excuse without making himself sound too bad.

“It’s ok, I won’t report your bad intentions,” Korra reassured him as she plopped herself down on the couch. She purred at the feeling of a relaxing seat and not the fancy, rigid, hard ones from Republic City Hall. “I’ve barely had one moment of peace all week. Nobody’s happy with me no matter how hard I try to help people.”

“Tell me about it,” Mako related as he flopped onto the armchair opposite the couch. It was fairly pointless to have an armchair there but he had no time to worry about decorating his three-room flat with all the commotion of his day-to-day life. “When I got promoted to commander, I was so excited but I can assure you, it is the biggest shithole-“

“You got promoted?” Korra perked up. “Since when?”

“Six weeks ago,” he smirked. “Has your head really been that disconnected on your 'avatar' duty?” he teased, “or have you just been spending too much time with Asami in looove?”

“You’re just jealous because you’ve turned every woman you’ve ever dated the other way,” she messed. “Maybe you still have feelings, huh?” Korra murmured loud enough for him hear, and then playfully poked him on the shoulder.

Mako smiled but there was a tiny bit of malice to it. In truth, he still had feelings for Korra. He had actually grown more and more fond of Korra while she had been missing for that three year period after their breakup. He had intended to ask her out again when she came back, especially seeing how much she had grown in all aspects. He attempted to at the wedding, but got cold feet and a hug instead. But then, when Korra and Asami got back from their vacation, we’re together! Mako grimaced at the memory. 

He blinked as he felt a squeeze on his nose. “Hello?” Korra asked. “Earth to Mako. Earth to Mako,” causing Mako’s heart to flutter.

“S-s-s-sorry,” he apologised. “Just thinking.”

“About how good looking you are?” Korra joked. Mako forced a smile. Look who had become a comedian all of a sudden. He still got a light-headed feeling from the compliment though.

“I’m gonna get a beer. Want one?” he offered, putting his frustration in the back of his mind.

“I’m fine, thanks. I don’t want to wake up with a headache on one of my few free days tomorrow.”

“Go on. Just one,” Mako pried. “Too good to have a drink with a lowly commander?” he asked, trying to turn her screw just a little. This backfired however, as Korra just missed the very subtle dig, which just rubbed salt into Mako's wound.

At the same time, Korra, while trying to relax, wouldn’t back down to a challenge. That was probably why they didn’t work as a couple. They were both independent figures, Mako having raised himself and his younger brother all on his own from a young age, while Korra was just naturally a stubborn person from being locked up for most of her life and now being given all the freedom in the world.

“Alright then,” she agreed. “But just one.”

“Just one,” Mako repeated, tossing her a Desert Oasis. She caught it in one hand, without even trying, and flicked the cap off with metalbending. She did the same for Mako without him bothering to even ask. He practically fell into his seat and they started to talk about their lives, catching up on the four or so months that they had missed due to their unrelenting schedules.

That one beer soon turned into two, then into three, and then four. Soon they got into a drinking game. Neither had had any social life for the past while so it was a big reprieve for them. Korra was quite a strong drinker, but Mako was had a naturally higher tolerance. It was about 11:13 beers in favour of Mako when he brought out the spirits.

“I’m n-n-not ssshhhure, Mahhhko,” Korra slurred. She was a fair bit tipsy, disappointingly, but she had a little restraint left.

“That’s what I thought!” Mako taunted, fairly drunk himself. “You’re just a LIGHTWEIGHT!” he shouted, intentionally raising his voice, and she took the bait.

“Am not!” was the best Korra could come up with. She couldn’t stand up properly to make herself look big and imitating, so she stayed rooted to the couch. “I’mmmmm... not even TIPsy,” she retorted a second later, adding extra emphasis on the last word, but her hesitation made it sound really bad.

“I’ll be the judge of THAT, thank-you-very-,much,” he blurted, stumbling over to the glass cabinet and getting two of his five shot glasses. He grinned toothily at the girl on the couch, recognising traces the old Korra that he had somehow fallen for. She was looking very pretty though, even more so than when she first came to Republic City. Very pretty indeed.

After another forty-five minutes, they were both well pissed. Even Mako, who was always careful in how far he went, in attempting to one-up Korra so much, had lost his common sense.

“Looks like I win,” Korra said lazily. “What’s wrong, handsome, tall, broooooding, firebender boy. Out of your depth?”

“Fight me,” he challenged, standing up, but trembling back onto his chair immediately. Korra tried to blast a gust of air at Mako but it was a well know fact that it was impossible to bend while drunk. The toxins in the alcohol blocked your chi depending on your tolerance. As well as this physical handicap, no-one could concentrate properly to go through the forms.

“Well guess what. I’M THE AVATAR, and you gotta deal with it!” Korra shouted louder than she intended. She stood up and had surprisingly good balance, probably from her airbending training. She wobbled over to Mako and grabbed his shirt, then slapping him on the cheek hard enough. Normally, Mako would’ve brushed this aside, but now he was infuriated. Any self-control was now gone from him and he was acting on his instincts.

He shot up and shoved Korra on the chest. Had she been sober she probably would’ve smashed his skull through the wall for touching her chest so casually, but she just giggled flirtatiously. She tripped over the tiny table in between the couch and the armchair, the near-empty spirits bottle falling onto the ground and staining the one carpet in the room.

“Oops,” she giggled, falling back onto the couch.

“Stupid bitch,” Mako snarled. This was his darker side that he had very rarely ever shown, due to his usual excellent temperament. “I’ll have you submissed in no time.” He jumped on top of Korra. Surprisingly then, all Korra did was pull him into a hug.

“I’m cold,” she complained, in an instant mood change, wrapping her arms tightly around Mako like when they were a couple. “Keep me warm.”

Mako stared into her dark blue eyes. They were beautiful. She was so relaxed, carefree, despite the fact that she had someone other than her girlfriend right on top of her. Her hair spread out against the leather like the roots of a tree. Her smile, although very goofy and more her not closing her mouth, still had an irresistible pull to it after all these years.

And he felt himself getting pulled to it. Closer and closer. Then, without thinking, yet clear as day in his intentions, he crashed his lips onto hers. Her eyes flew open from being half-shut, even without her sense of direction Korra knew this was wrong. She tried to push him off of her and the couch, but he only moved his mouth off of hers.

“I can’t, I’m with Asami, please” she pleaded unconvincingly, despite the fact she was literally holding onto him for warmth a few moments before. “This isn’t right.”

“Asami isn’t here,” he whispered, in her ear, pushing the strands away. “And besides, you kissed me too many times to count when I was dating Asami. It’s payback time.”

“If memory serves correct, I kissed you twice, and I thought we still together back then, so only once really,” she finished smugly, proud of her smart response.

Mako frowned, unable to remember half of what Korra had said due to him losing concentration. He just as quickly pushed those thoughts out of his head though, placing his hands all around her waist and ass. She’s really grown into a strong young woman, huh. Even better.

At that exact thought, he plunged into her mouth, hands caressing her body aimlessly, slipping wherever they wanted, and there wasn’t any doubt in her consent either. She was always a bad liar, and she soon returned the compliment passionately. She felt hands reach underneath her shirt, grabbing her breasts. Looks like we’re in for a fun night, she thought, giving in to her emotions. A tiny corner of her, which Korra could only identify as guilt, nagged at her in an annoying voice. You’ve already messed with Asami so much already, she deserves better, especially after all she’s done for you.

I’m the Avatar, I do whatever the fuck I want! she retorted silently to herself. The old Korra, the one that had disobeyed the White Lotus in leaving the compound, the one that burned down an ancient airbending relic when she got frustrated, the one that would head-butt a bull charging right at her. The one that disregarded the possibility of consequences to her actions. That Korra emerged.

Her moans could be heard all throughout the surrounding area as she lost herself to her emotions and unconsciously gave herself in to a whole new kind of challenge.

That was a long chapter! Cringing a bit. This was longer than I intend my chapters to be in future, as this has 3k+ and I intend to give maybe in around 2k for the average chapter. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to just be full of fluffy stuff and smut I intend on a genuine story, book 5, but this is part of the plot. Thanks so much reading!


	2. Old Friends

Korra woke up, hungover and sweaty. She tried to remember what had happened the night before, but she couldn’t think straight, and it seemed just plain incorrect. She wouldn’t cheat on Asami, anyway, she was much better than-

Korra froze, realising what, and more so, who, was beneath her. 

“No, no, no…” Korra murmured, clutching her head in her hands. Everything around her was spinning, but the jigsaw was slowly forming into an ugly picture ever so clearly. Going hard on the beers before hitting spirits. Antagonising an angry, drunk (and now that she thought of it, looking around at his apartment, lonely) ex. Korra tried to convince herself that it wasn’t her fault, that Mako had forced her… No, that was diabolical on so many levels to blame him in any way, shape or form. She had broken into his home when he clearly tried to avoid visitors, started drinking heavy, and her emotions had always got the better of her much more easily than the bare chest of the man that she had just been drooling on.

“Uhhh,” Mako grumbled in his sleep. He obviously felt the weight of her body, minus her thick clothing, on his waist. She might have been inclined to pout moodily any other time, but they had only gone this far once or twice years ago.

She silently got off the sleeping firebender, and tipped-toed around, getting her clothes back on. They spelt awful, and Korra nearly threw up at the sight of vomit on her top. It was a traditional southern water tribe tunic, white fur at the bottom, but there were extremely intricate designs of waves and mountains on this. It was especially formal, only for good occasions. She cringed at the sight of it.

Korra bent the vomit off of the tunic which came down to her mid-thigh and slipped on her leggings, and shoes shortly after that. 

She frowned, glancing over her once-soulmate. Even now, in the pale sunlight of the morning he was incredibly hands-

Shut the fuck up, she chided herself. You’ve already betrayed Asami’s trust and now you don’t even feel remorse?!

At that moment, the weight of what she had done really hit her. She would’ve started crying at that point, but she really didn’t deserve to feel sorry for herself. Instead she went up and dressed Mako back in his clothes, hoping that he would play off any vague memories as a dream. She made a stubborn point of not looking at the place which had already gotten enough attention just the night before. Then, she slipped out the door, using her metal bracelet to lock the door behind her. As she ran down the hallway, tears streaming down her face, she tried to push the wriggling thoughts out of her head. This was too public a place to break down. As the harsh rays of early-morning sunlight nearly caused her to trip onto the road, temporarily blinding her, she broke into a sprint, her heavy guilt trailing after her. She needed somewhere quiet, where no-one would find her for the time being.

Not the spirit world. Her energy could cause even more trouble given that she was the avatar. She refused to let herself go to Air Temple Island, as she really didn’t deserve other peoples' pity at the minute. She decided to escape to the mountains just outside Republic City. Normally, she would’ve flown on her glider but that clearly wasn’t option. Always messing things up, she chided herself. But just as well, she wasn’t limited to airbending.  
She closed her eyes, but couldn’t control her breath. It was too much effort. She clenched her fists shut, her arms down by her sides. Flames blasted out of her knuckles and heels, and she began to rise quite rapidly. She had done this once before, but that was in the Avatar State.

You’re doing it wrong, don’t use emotion to fuel firebending! Mu Zhao, her old firebending instructor, gave out in her head. But she just pushed the old lectures down and flew up onto the 9-storey building beside the 20-storey apartment block. She used short blasts to hop from rooftop to rooftop, careful to use airbending to land on the wooden roofs. The bottom of tunic got slightly singed but she didn’t notice. It wasn’t long before she was a good walk out of the city. She landed in a valley, exhausted from the intense concentration required. She doubled over, then threw up.

Korra looked up. She recognised it as the place Kuivera had entered Republic City, in her giant mechasuit. There were huge depressions in the earth from the footsteps that had threatened to destroy the metropolis.

“Hopefully I can do something somewhat helpful today,” Korra muttered, to no-one at all. She splayed her hands out in front of her, and inhaled, bringing her hands up as she did. The dirt began to rise slowly, but Korra wasn’t concentrating hard enough, and the depression only filled in in lumps. Korra let her emotions get the better of her. She went from miserable to furious in a few brief seconds.

“WHY CAN’T ANYTHING GO EASILY FOR ME?!” she screamed into the sky. Luckily Republic City was a solid mile away by this point, so no-one was around, especially this early in the morning. Korra started punching the ground, cracks appearing the grass, although they went spread around more than they went deep. 

“Just a break,” she cried, angry reverting to sorrow just as quickly as it had turned a few moments ago. But this wasn’t just the events of the previous night coming out. “Please.”

She felt all of her feelings pouring out, not just the ones at the current situation. Vatu ripping Raava out of her had not only physically exhausting, but also traumatic. Just as she had felt when Amon had taken her water, earth and firebending away. The old yet vivid memory of being a nudge from jumping off the cliff. The realisation that she wouldn’t be able to be the one thing she had ever wanted to be growing up turning her, the avatar – the hero - extremely suicidal. She had never really had a friend she could talk to about these things. It was always get ready for the next terrorist threatening to overthrow society. That’s why when she had become best friends with Asami, she felt so at ease, finally another girl to relate to. Then she had felt feelings of love for the person who had also been through the mill mentally. She could cuddle up and cry into her shoulder without having to worry about being judged when no-one else was around but them.

But now she had betrayed Asami, the person she could open up to without consequences. Tenzin was also helpful, but he just wasn’t the same, despite never failing to find the right words. 

“Why does the universe hate me?” she wailed, throwing her arms up with all of her feelings on the end of them. Suddenly, a geyser of lava shot out of the ground 30 feet away from her. She snapped out her sorry state for a moment to watch in awe at what she had just accomplished. “I can… lavabend!” she said excitedly, before going back to her moody self from a few moments ago. “Maybe I can jump in and I won’t ever have to face Asami.”

“This life is never easy,” a familiar yet astonishing voice said behind her. She swivelled around to see one person, or rather, spirit, she had never expected to see again.

“Aang!” Korra exclaimed. She momentarily pushed all of her negative feelings aside for amazement, baffled at how she was seeing him in front of her. She vividly remembered how she had felt him being ripped away before. “H-h-h-how…”

“Every avatar is simply binded with Raava, but we did not die when the connection was severed,” Aang explained. “I am here of my own free will, and as an Air Nomad I was always very spiritually connected. Every spirit can sense Raava, and in the spiritually charged Republic City, you are effectively a stronger beacon than the spirit portal itself.

Korra nodded. She could feel the spirit portal right there and then, the push-and-pull, the slow swivel, but she didn’t really notice it anymore as it was always there, like her left hand. Even though it was miles away, she sensed it without bother.

“Very few avatars have ever been lucky enough to go through life without some degree of stress and/or trauma,” Aang continued, his calm voice therapeutic. “I had the dilemma of upholding my entire culture, but by murdering Ozai, which was the only option until the last minute, I would have disregarded my respect for all life as an Air Nomad.” 

“But the Fire Nation burnt your entire culture to ashes,” Korra interrupted, then winced. It came out a lot worse than she meant it to. She stared at the ground, embarrassed.

“It’s okay,” Aang said, un-offended. “I dealt with those demons long ago. Although you could be more subtle,” he finished with a smile.

“Sorry,” she apologised. “But did you ever… you know… later on in life… have to… ya know…”

“Yes,” he said bluntly. Korra blinked, taken aback, even though she was the one who had asked the question. “I was barely thirteen when I faced Ozai, and still very innocent. Had I been in the same position ten years older, I doubt I would have spared him the mercy of life, although he was humiliated thoroughly.” He looked at her with his piercing grey eyes. “I spared many lives by removing peoples' bending, and I thought that I could live like that my whole life, never lowering myself to taking another’s life, whether it be an animal or human, despite the fact that Roku warned me many times that I was only adding to my problems.”

“By letting these murderers, rapists, paedophiles and sadists live, many of the people I had spared broke out of whatever prison they had been confined to, and plotted anew. No leader of a significant movement or organisation got there by brute strength alone, and while many of them lost their respect, a good few just built themselves up again and the initial effort had all been for naught.” 

“In terms of the Fire Nation, Zuko was the only person with the birth-right to the throne, having defeated Azula in an Agni Kai (Katara beat Azula but she broke the rules of the Agni Kai by attacking Katara in the first place), and the people wouldn’t accept a non-bender, so it fit into place nicely. But as I learnt later on in my life, sometimes you can’t be righteous and noble when the weed grows back. I killed six people in my lifetime, and even though I hated it, I don’t regret it.”

Korra was stunned. It was stupid, she had been given a very honest answer, but she had only ever heard about his good morals, and how he had such integrity even for an Avatar.

“Wow, I… for some reason…” Korra began to mumble, then stopped herself. She had her own issues that were more relevant, at that very moment and time. “I'm sorry to change the subject so suddenly, but I need your advice. I’ve betrayed my best friend and girlfriend by cheating on her. She’s the only person I can ever open up to, but now I don’t deserve her trust. All I ever wanted was to be badass and be the hero as the Avatar growing up. But all I’ve ever done is have to rely on my friends to save me.

“I was powerless against Amon, and it was only through luck that I hadn’t learnt airbending by that point! I would’ve condemned the world to 10,000 years of darkness if it weren’t for Jinora! I was helpless to stop Zaheer, and in letting him cripple me mentally and physically, the Earth Kingdom was ravaged by bandits until it was militarily suppressed by a fascist dictator that wouldn’t have come about if it weren’t for me being incapable of dressing myself!” Korra shouted, out of breath. 

“I am telling you this now because soon you will have a hard decision to make. Sometimes, we have to take hard choices that won’t win you any popularity points,” Aang said, seemingly ignoring her rant. “I can’t say that I was flawless. But you have to deal with the benefits and the consequences of your actions no matter how they may seem in hindsight. Kyoshi supressed a revolt from the people of Ba Sing Sae, and ended up founding the most corrupt secret service in the Earth Kingdom in order to prevent it happening again. That was the wrong decision to side with the Earth King and create the Dai Li, but it was sensible at the time.” 

“HOW DOES THAT HELP ME RIGHT NOW?!” Korra shouted out, her feelings getting the better of her. She would’ve thought that outburst through more but her headache was splitting her temples open.

“It isn’t relevant right now, but it will be come the near-“

“FUCK OFF!” She screamed, all coherent thought leaving her head. She slashed a cylindrical 10x10 metre fire column at Aang, not in the mood for any spiritual mumbo-jumbo as it felt. She didn’t stop there though. She continued to practically incinerate the spot where he was. She then used her newfound ability to lavabend and attempted to make the ground erupt underneath him. But she failed, fell over and retched, on her knees, angry, afraid, confused, guilty, sick, lonely, miserable and started to cry.

“You must sort your personal issues before you deal with the world’s, and you do not have an abundance of time,” Aang's voice echoed around, coming from nowhere in particular.

It was only a projection so he won't have been physically harmed, surely, Korra reasoned, immediately regretting what she had just done. Great, I've just ruined another relationship with one of my mentors.

“It’s okay,” she heard his voice echo, reading her thoughts almost. “It's only natural that you’re frustrated given your current circumstances, but you cannot vent your personal issues through your power.”

She looked up but there was no sign of him. Just a bunch of embers slowly dying out in the morning dew. She extinguished the flames just to be safe, as well as cooling the lava into rock (which looked quite ugly now, a black spot in the middle of a green valley) and began to trudge back to Republic City. She hadn’t really matured fully yet, letting loose like that on someone like Aang. Why couldn’t she just be happy with no issues and things that she had nothing to do with get better on their own?

Little did she know, things would soon enough be about to escalate several tenfold.


	3. Catching Up

Korra’s headache had cleared mostly by the time she got back to Republic City. She was still a little hungover, but it was something she could ignore. She was a little drained from her conversation and her lower back was aching from the bad pose she had slept in. 

What should I do? she mused. She wasn’t up for helping people today, she was already fairly tired. Maybe help an old woman across the street. Yeah, something nice and relaxing.

She sighed. That sounded worse than facing Toph again. The ancient woman had tossed her around like a ragdoll although she was barely able to walk.

Oh well, I’ll just head to the old probending gym if they’ll let me in. Ever since Kuivera had blown up half the city, people had little-to-no free time on their hands, and especially no extra money to go watch probending. It was a real pity. She’d love nothing more than to just hop into the ring with Mako – stop thinking about him dammit – and Bolin, and worry about how to counter the volley of water flying her way and how to meditate without interrupting Tenzin, go back to when she wasn’t needed as the Avatar, but as a waterbender filling in for a bit of fun. Fun. When did she ever have fun recently without side-effects?

It took a half-hour to walk to the arena. On her way, she glanced at tabloid headline in a corner shop blaring: 

“trouble brews – RELATIONS BETWEEN OMASHU and Ba Sing Sae ON TIPPING POINT AS 'PEACE-KEEPING' AVATAR HIDES AWAY IN REPUBLIC CITY HALL.”  
Hazukk Arahonov reports live on the fragile tensions in the Earth Kingdom  
She snorted and marched over to the stand and grabbed a copy of The Sun, a newspaper, in a lot of opinions, known to spread rumours and exaggerate stories for more money. She started to read the first paragraph to herself silently;

It really is ironic that for someone who has ran so often and put herself first, just recently for three long years, to claim to 'keep the balance' when all she does is stay locked up in Republic City Hall while here in heart of the Earth Kingdom… 

The old shopkeeper glanced up at the Avatar, and muttered “Any more surprises from the Spirit World?”

“Sorry?” she said, even though she heard exactly what he said, giving him the benefit of the doubt.

“You heard me perfectly fine, Avatar,” he replied, spitting out the last word in contempt, his voice vaguely familiar.

“Well I don’t understand what you mean. Maybe you can explain it for me,” she retorted passive-aggressively.

“What is there to explain? First you decide to endanger the entire city by fighting a giant, evil spirit right on our doorstep. Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, you decide to leave the portals open, because humans and spirits should learn to live together,” he said, imitating her voice in a very antagonising way. “Then, when the vines displace thousands of people, you have the audacity to side with them when they could just as easily have just set up far away in the mountains.

“It was about time when Raiko banned you from Republic City,” he continued, “but then you have a scrap against someone who hadn’t even known airbending for two months and disappear for THREE years and then-“

“And then a fascist took control of the Earth Kingdom while I was recovering from the trauma of being poisoned and nearly suffocated,” Korra snapped back, mocking his repetition. “I suppose it was my fault that she invaded Republic City too, and then a new spirit portal opened, and then, I was at fault for taking a tiny vacation, and then… then...” Korra struggled, trying to belittle him. “I’m human too you know!”

“It damn was!” he practically shouted, ignoring her last comment while coming on to the path to square up to her, although she was at least half a head taller so it wasn't intimidating. She butted heads with him, but he wasn’t done yet. “You think you’re so righteous, ‘look at me, I control spirit energy, I’m all powerful and don’t give a shit about the consequences of my actions’.” But he dug himself into a hole with the next insult. “This is why we don’t let gays run our affairs! You’re all a bad influence to children and will never be half the Avatar that your predecessor was!” 

Korra changed her moderately annoyed expression, and went from pissed off to deep, genuine fury. It was also at this moment that she recognised the man’s voice. He was the famous probending commentator, Shiro Shinobi, who wasn’t even born in Republic City, he was from the Angloa State in the Northern Earth Kingdom. But his status meant jack shit to her now. That jibe, no-one had had the guts to say that to her face before. This was personal. 

She felt a strange, malicious, hellish power well up in her. It was the power of the Avatar State, but it felt different. She welcomed it though. She felt his body heat emitting from him, his short breaths, the vibrations of his heart through the concrete, even though she had shoes with soles on. How she’d love to wipe that cocky know-it-all expression off of- 

Suddenly, his face contorted in pain, and he began to levitate from the ground. His limbs twisted, writhing in pain, and even though it was the worst time of the day for it with the rising sun, she immediately figured out what she was doing. 

Bloodbending. 

She felt the dark sensation grow in her, and she wanted to let it take control of. A deep voice, one she couldn’t quite pinpoint in her head, whispered to her. Don’t take that. He was homophobic to you. Let him feel the wrath of the Avatar. The true power, used when others try to hurt you. And she wanted to, so badly.

But at that moment, she saw a different man in front of her. Struggling to feed himself, afraid of a terrorist attack at any given moment. He had his well-paying job ripped away from him, due to circumstances that he was helpless to do anything about. Do not succumb to his level, Korra, a feminine voice warned in her head, and Korra found herself confused by the sudden appearance of Raava. She generally only spoke when there was something spiritual was happening. This was an ordinary, mature man who had consciously provoked her. But at the same time, how bad would it look if she couldn’t ignore an insult, no matter the severity of it?

Just as quickly as she had grabbed hold of him, she released her vice on him. He fell on his ass, trembling. She sneered at him, and spat in his face, singeing the newspaper she had crumpled with an iron grip unintentionally. She dropped it and sarcastically tossed a few copper pieces that were her pocket at him. He scooped them up and ran behind his counter, cowering.

Korra looked around, but there was nobody who had noticed who she was and what had just occurred, given that it was a small enough street, and very few people went down this road on their way to work anyway. She briskly walked away, trying to put the event that had just occurred in the back of her head for the time being.

As she walked away, Shinobi trembled. On any other day, bloodbending would’ve outraged him, especially from the Avatar. But he had felt something that he had long wished to forget when she had used that ability. He was no monk but it was that aura. He had felt the desperation to hide and crumble in a way just mere seconds ago that he’d hoped to never experience ever again. He hugged his knees, prepared to wait as long as it took for her to go away. He wouldn’t talk of this again. Anything to keep her away from him, a reminder of that. He tugged at the scar that he had got from falling debris that day on his left ribcage, shivering despite the cool temperature.

Korra reached the Cabbage Corp Arena roughly 45 minutes later, which somehow did not have vines travelling along the side, although it did have a tree sticking straight through it. Walking was boring. She realised how much she took flying for granted, and swore to walk more to appreciate this. The tired, moody Avatar walked to the side-door which the athletes used to use avoid fans, but it was locked. She looked up, and spotted a window on the fifth storey. She smiled, wondering how she could go about doing this, and remembered the first time she had been there. It was technically breaking in, but there was hardly any security around anyway. She strolled over to the railing, and took a deep breath. She then threw her legs over the side of the railing and pencil-dove into the water.

Scratch that. Freezing cold water. It really snapped her out of her self-pitying mood, as she quickly began to use her arms in a rotating fashion to create a spiralling currant around her. Then she graciously rose on a water-tornado to eye-level with the window in matter of seconds. She used a simple metalbending trick to open the lock, without even needing to use her bracelet, and then reached towards the window as if she could touch it from eleven metres away, gently pulling her arms back. A gentle gust blew the window outwards with plenty of room for Korra to fit into. Her water-tornado carried her through and gently placed her on the ground. She flicked her hand and the water was flung into the sea with a little too-loud-for-comfort splash. She looked around after closing the window, vaguely recognising her surroundings, and started to walk the old route she had always taken back for the morning sessions. It took her five minutes to find her way to the entrance of the gym. She was surprised to hear somebody walking around in there, and peeked through.

“Bolin!” she said, flinging open the door, happy to see him.

“Wha… Korra!” Bolin replied enthusiastically before jogging over to her and wrapped her in a bear hug, before putting on a posh voice. “To what do I owe the pleasure, your avatarness?” 

Korra laughed, a genuine, heartfelt laugh. Bolin was the best friend you could ask for. Sure, he could be painfully cringey sometimes with his jokes but after all the seriousness she had been through lately, a stupid sense of humour was just what she needed.

“Nice to see you too,” she replied sarcastically with a goofy smile plastered all over her face. She didn’t have feelings for him but he was that one friend that could make you laugh before he even said anything.

“You bet!” Bolin came back. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen you. Well, technically, I’ve seen your face all over the newspapers, and there was that one time when I thought I saw you, but it was just similar clothing, and-“ 

“It’s coming back to me why I didn’t talk to you,” she joked. “Sorry for not visiting, I thought you were in Zaofu with Opal? You two have really been getting along ever since you got back together after that Kuivera thing split you two apart.”

“Yeah, well Opal's been doing a lot of boring airbending stuff with the Air Nation in the last few weeks, so I thought I’d come home and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I'll be 21 in a couple of months, so I need to start getting a proper job down. It took me a while to find out what I want to do, but I’ve finally figured it out. I’m going to teach lavabending at the Toph Beifong Metalbending Academy!” Bolin finished with a flourish.

Korra blinked. She had completely forgotten about the deadly power he possessed, given how friendly and gullible he could be sometimes. It just didn’t fit his personality. I guess Lin never had shown she could be nice before she visited Su. The world is full of surprises, she pondered.

“That’s cool Bolin, but…” Korra stuttered, trying to break it to him nicely. “The name kinda gives it away, doesn’t it?”

“What about the name?” Bolin asked, genuinely not catching on. 

“METAL-bending,” Korra said slowly, essentially spelling it out for him. “It’s a school that specialises in teaching cops how to metalbend. Not lavabend.”

“Oh yeah, of course,” Bolin laughed. “Well, funny enough, it was actually Beifong who suggested it to me. I know what you’re thinking, that’s nonsense, Lin Beifong is the definition of 'if it’s not broke then don’t fix it' but it turns out that the force have had trouble dealing with these guys in the past because it’s so rare that someone is special enough to unlock the ability, and that they’re all very talented and special,” Bolin spat out in one big breath, grinning at the last part.

Korra rolled her eyes, sceptical of the praise Bolin had supposedly received. Even when Korra had restored her bending, Beifong had barely given a response. The chances of her lavishing praise on Bolin was unlikely to say the least.

“Actually, that reminds me,” Korra said. “Check out my new skill that I learnt this morning.” She reached out to one of the earth disc piles on the other side of the gym and pulled it towards her like she was stretching after a long meditation. It flew towards her, and she splayed her right hand out flat, the plate hovering roughly about a foot above her palm. She shut her eyes and tried to imagine the disc burning from the inside-out in her mind, like when she had been told to burn a leaf when she had first started being taught firebending.

She opened her eyes and smiled toothily, amazed just as much as the first time by this new ability. The disc had turned into molten rock in a matter of seconds, and although it wasn’t perfect, it was still pretty good for her second attempt. She cooled the disc down back to its original form, although it was a bit lumpy compared to a few seconds before, and fired it at the net at the far end of the room.

“Wow, you can lavabend too, that’s… great!” Bolin said, seemingly dismayed.

“D-did I do something to annoy you?” Korra panicked. She really didn’t want to make more trouble for herself socially. 

“No, no,” Bolin lied, then sighed, sitting down with his legs crossed. “It’s just that, well… I thought that I had found out something entirely special and impressive that only I could do. But now, it seems that you’re clearly also able to do it, and without even much trouble by the looks of it.”

“Come on,” Korra tried. “How many other lavabenders are there in the world? Me being able to do it is nothing special because I'm the Avatar, but besides from you I've only ever heard of two others, including the Red Lotus guy, who weren’t Avatars.”

“Really?” Bolin perked up. “Who was the other one?”

“A king with schizophrenia in the Earth Kingdom long ago, called Lord Kolisiyi, who supposedly was the first non-Avatar to unlock the ability. He was a mad lunatic, leading his army and tearing down the walls of Ba Sing Sae because the voices in his head told him that the walls were keeping the wealth of the Earth Kingdom inside Ba Sing Sae.”

“But what about the guys that the force have had trouble with over the years like Beifong was saying?” Bolin asked. 

“I’m getting to that. After the widespread terror, lavabending was made punishable by death everywhere in the Earth Kingdom, except for the royal family in Ba Sing Sae and those in very high ranking positions, like lightning was for the Fire Nation. Even before it was made illegal, most people condemned it after the invasion, especially during the 100 Year War as you have to have Fire Nation lineage to have the ability.

“Even though Republic City never got around to banning it, there was a huge stigma around it and as a result, lavabenders were outcast socially, and then they had to resort to crime to stay alive because no-one would hire them but triads.”

Bolin stared at her, blankly. He wasn’t good at paying attention, especially this early in the morning, but he got the gist. He hadn’t known the prejudice against lavabending before as for a long time he’d been with Kuivera and holed up in her work. Of course, he never lavabent in public before due to the obvious dangers.

“Is it still hated in the Earth Kingdom?” Bolin asked. He was very intrigued by this. He never knew Korra was a good storyteller. “And illegal too?”

“I dunno,” Korra shrugged. “It was just a story I heard when I was a kid. I thought everyone knew about lavabending being not popular though?”

“Mako and didn’t go to school, remember?” Bolin reminded her. “We didn’t really have time for stories.”

“Oh yeah, of course,” Korra said, embarrassed. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” said Bolin. “But I’m really interested in that. I bet there are tons of lavabenders around the Earth Kingdom, in Ba Sing Sae in particular, just waiting to reach their full potential!”

“Whoa, hold it here. The Earth Kingdom has never been very open to change, and given the fact that you worked with Kuivera won’t help your cause. I don’t think it’s a smart idea to go strolling into Ba Sing Sae looking for lavabenders. I’d make a guess that a lot wouldn’t even admit it.”

Bolin thought about this for a moment, then sighed. He had gotten way too optimistic in the short space of time she had given him a summarised history of lavabending. “I guess you have a point. I haven’t even accepted the offer from Beifong yet.”

“It’s alright, the whole idea will probably take a good while to get off the ground anyway.” She glanced at the ladder in the far corner leading up to the attic. “Are you still… living here? Even with the tree sticking through the window?”

“Yeah,” he replied, scratching his head. “It’s very cheap, and only temporary, soooo…” he trailed off, trying to think of a way to make it sound good. 

“But what about all the money you made as a mover-star?”

“Well, you see, I kind of left that behind in Zaofu, so… yeah.” He smiled cheesily. “I didn’t want to let Mako find out, because I’ve got to show him I can be independent, and he’d insist that I move in with him.” Then Bolin's eyes perked up. “Hey, why don’t we all meet up together later, it’ll be great fun!”

“Well, I don’t know,” Korra said, fidgeting. “Asami’s out of town, and I’ve got a busy schedule, and…” she said as she tried to think of a good enough excuse to not see Mako. “It’s just not convenient.”

“Oh okay,” Bolin said, disappointed. “How about a bit of light training then since you’re here?” 

“Lavabending or just passing the plates?” she asked. She was curious to see how good he would be at teaching.

“Nah, just work off some steam. I've heard that you've been locked up in meetings from Asami.”

“There’s no end,” Korra agreed, and grabbed one of the protective vests, throwing it on. She used airbending to float one into Bolin’s hands.

“Where’s the point, we’re probably not even sparring?” Bolin complained. 

“Just to be safe,” Korra said. She quickly brought her right knee up to waist height, then spun around clockwise while extending her leg. A disc flew off one of the piles and would’ve needed Bolin’s attention had it not been a solid eight yards off target. Korra grimaced as it smashed into a full bucket of water and drenched the floor, only realising now how rusty she was. Bolin just laughed, and put his arms through the gear, popping his head out a second later. 

“I don’t think I’ll need it judging by the looks of that,” he messed, and threw a quick jab at Korra. She returned the disc with enthusiasm, and on target this time.

“I just beat Kuivera in a 1v1 a few months ago, I’d watch your mouth if I were you,” she laughed.


	4. Chapter 4: Old Friends

Mako groaned, clutching his head. The rays of sunlight coming through the window suggested that it was early morning. He checked his watch and cursed. It read 7:57am. He tried to roll out of bed, and then fell onto his thin carpet. The smell of vodka reached his hungover nose, and he raced to the tiny sink in his bathroom. He threw up for a solid thirty seconds, and curled up into a ball. He tried to remember what had brought this on. I was drinking with Korra, and I had too much on a goddamn work night! 

He pushed himself up and decided that he needed to wash his rank body. After getting ready, he sat in the bath and filled his bowl up with cold water, one, because cold water was good for a hangover, and two, he couldn't afford hot water. He could use firebending to heat it, of course, but he was barely able to tell left from right at that moment, so firebending wasn’t a great idea anyway. There was also the rule of not firebending in the apartment block for safety reasons, but that was near impossible to enforce. 

“AHHH!” he cried as he dumped the water over his head. The initial numbness of his scalp passed after a minute, and he repeated the action a few more times. He racked his brain for memories while doing this. It seemed that he had passed out while drinking, and then he had a very nice dream, but he had woken up fully- clothed, and Korra was nowhere to be seen, so that question answered itself.

He was feeling considerably more awake when he got out and dried himself off with a towel. The worst of his headache was gone, and within seven minutes, he was dressed appropriately for another day at the office. He had had a little difficulty in getting the other commanders to respect him as much as he wasn’t a metalbender, but slowly that was turning around.

He flung open his door, and fumbled stupidly for about three attempts before he finally locked it. It’d take a twenty-minute walk to the station, and he was to report to his desk at 8:15am. That gave him just under ten minutes to be on time. He rushed through the hallway and very nearly fell down the stairs. A whisker separated him and an old woman being knocked down when he crashed through the front doors.

“Sorry!” he shouted back at her, and turned around just in time to see himself run into a man walking around the corner. He smashed in this man and knocked all of his papers and briefcase on the ground, as well as falling on a heap on him.

“Watch where you’re fuckin’ going!” the man gave out, picking up his glasses. He had deep, commanding voice that meant every word he said.

“I’m so, so, so, sorry,” Mako blurted out as he got off the man, scooped up everything and then proceeded to drop it as he tried to carry too much.

“What is coming of our force nowadays?” the man challenged, then his eyes lit up as he saw who had just bumped into him. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t my old friend Mako.” He stood up and dusted himself off.

“What?” Mako said, confused. He knew that being a commander meant that he had to answer to the press sometimes, but he didn’t think anyone actually remembered his name past the official report, and he certainly had never made any friends there. He glanced up at the man but didn’t have a clue who he was. “I’m terribly sorry sir, but… who are you?” The last part came a lot more stupidly than he would have liked.

“Oh well, I suppose you’re too caught up in your police work to remember me,” he dug. Mako frowned, but he really couldn’t remember anything about his 'old friend'. The man was dressed in casual yet very nice water-tribe clothing, although he didn’t have your typical northern accent as was common among privileged water tribe people in Republic City. It had a slight southern tinge, but that could well just be the way he pronounced his words, as he was very articulate. He was slim but not skinny, and his medium-length hair was drawn back into a man-bun. 

“Come on,” he said, now smiling, and threw his hands up in mock exasperation. “Hazukk? From probending? Before you replaced me with the Avatar?”

Then it clicked into place. Hazukk hadn’t shown up for their all-important probending match because he’d had a fight with Mako after the previous match (how simple things seemed back then looking at them now), and Korra had offered to fill in. He’d never seen Hazukk after that and had pretty much forgotten all about him.

But the man in front of Mako, still holding his hands up, was nothing like the moody 17-year old from all those years ago. Back then Hazukk didn’t bother paying attention to his hair, he always mumbled his words and never let anything go like a petulant child. As well as that, in Mako’s memory, Hazukk had a hunched back like at old woman, but the man in front of him was standing up straight and tall. He seemed a completely different person.

“Hazukk? As in Hazukk Arahonov? Wow, you’re… you’re… you're completely different,” Mako said, trying not to sound too stupid. He stood up and faced Hazukk, who was in fact an inch taller than Mako.

“The one and only,” Hazukk confirmed, with a very wide smile that reminded Mako of Verek. “Long time no see, old friend,” he said, keeping up that grin.

“Yeah, it must have been, what four years now?” Mako said, thinking about how drastically his life had changed after that match. “So much has happened in that time, you wouldn’t believe how much has happened.” Mako stopped, cursing himself. He really wasn’t acting like himself today, not watching where he was going and repeating his words in the same sentence.

“It looks like you’re in a hurry, eh?” Hazukk asked, and Mako bit his bottom lip in frustration for stopping for a lovely conversation with an old friend, when he was already tight on time. “Maybe we can meet up later, for old time's sake, Commander?”

Mako smiled hesitantly, missing the fact that Hazukk knew he was a commander now. He didn’t want to come across as rude. “Yeah sure, go for it. How about The Bridge on Maturu Street, 7:15?”

“Sounds great. See you then,” Hazukk said, and then walked past Mako and like a man born with confidence. Mako, with his headache, decided to take it a little slower even if it meant being late. 

The day passed fairly quietly. A couple of robberies, assaults, vandalism, nothing incredibly serious like they’d gotten used to. No-one noticed him being a couple minutes late thankfully. Since it was a Saturday, Mako wasn’t working the day after and he could enjoy himself without having to worry about being late the next morning. Mako got home at seven and Mako yet again was annoyed at himself for his tardiness. He was definitely going to not be on time.

After changing into some casual clothes, which in his opinion were a black t-shirt, brown jumper and navy trousers, he got the bus to Maturu Street. By the time he had got to the bar, he was in a lot better time than he had expected. He walked in and spotted Hazukk at a two-person table in the corner. He was in more or less the same clothes except his hair was let down, in line with his jaw, and his coat wasn’t anything fancy. It reminded Mako of his old memories of Hazukk, but his hair wasn’t as greasy now.

“How are things?” Hazukk greeted, standing up and clasping Mako’s shoulder. 

“Today was fine, but the last few months in general have just been chaotic. Tough job.” Mako wasn’t one for rambling on. They ordered drinks and sat down.

“I’ve barely had any time to catch a break myself recently,” Hazukk related. “I’ve been stuck in Ba Sing Sae monitoring the political tensions between them and Omashu. I just got back recently after sending my article in.”

“Article?” Mako asked nonchalantly, although he was alert in his head. 

“Well yes, I am a journalist,” Hazukk explained, bemused. “Couldn’t you tell earlier?”

“Oh no, sorry, it's just I couldn’t imagine the sulking guy I once fought with-“

“And often against,” Hazukk joked, interrupting.

“Yeah,” Mako admitted. “-becoming a journalist.” This was true, but another reason for his reaction was that journalists weren't popular in the force, due to the fact that the papers had been giving out constantly about the skyrocketing crime rates in the last few months, and just in general, they very rarely ever praised the police. It was an unspoken rule to avoid them at all costs.

Shit, I can’t just leave now, I’ll have to watch my mouth from now on, Mako chided himself. He’d never been on great terms with Hazukk back in their probending days, and he wouldn’t open up any police issues that Hazukk could write about.

“You probably think I’m here to get something like a quote and then twist in out of context,” Hazukk said, reading Mako’s mind. “Trust me, at The Sun, we stick to the truth and nothing but the absolute truth.”

If Mako had not had such good self-constraint, he would’ve spat his drink out all over the table. That was genuinely one of the funniest things he’d heard in a while. Exaggeration was one thing, but Hazukk was downright lying, even if he believed the lie himself. Mako decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, for the sake of not starting a fight.

They chatted for roughly four hours, and despite Mako’s initial reaction, he found himself warming up and agreeing with Hazukk on a lot of things. He seemed to mean well. Hazukk said that he didn’t want to go drinking to get drunk, and Mako was relieved. He didn’t fancy walking home like half of his arrests had been when he started out.

Hazukk told Mako how on the night he had been absent, he’d actually been hit by a car on his way to the arena. He’d heard about how the avatar had filled in, and realised how it would've looked after their previous argument. He’d had to deal with his left leg being broken entirely and right snapped, so he couldn’t have marched back in anyway. It had a silver lining though, and he’d found out he had a passion for journalism while restrained from any work including his legs. He wasn’t bitter anymore about how the Avatar had casually taken his place in the team as he’d started to be productive with his life.

“I’ve actually been promoted to commander recently enough,” Mako said, letting his guard down. “Beifong herself promoted me.”

“That’s great,” Hazukk congratulated him loudly, as if he were one of his close friends. And Mako didn’t see why not. “Who would’ve thought, from a lowly-little punk in the Triple Threat Triad to a commander in our very own police force!” 

The general chatter in the bar lowered a bit, and a few glares were sent Mako’s way. Mako cursed quietly to himself, but Hazukk heard. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing,” Mako said through a fake smile. “Just remembered some work I forgot to do.”

Hazukk clearly didn’t believe him but let it drop, oblivious to stares from behind his back. After another half hour, Mako stood up, wobbling a little bit, but barely even tipsy. They’d not had a drink for an hour or two. “Well, I’ve got to be heading home,” Mako declared. “It was good to see you.”

“Any special ladies in your life?” Hazukk teased. “It’s not unlike you to punch above your weight, as the Avatar and CEO of Future Industries would know.”

“Please,” Mako laughed. “I know myself that Korra isn’t girlfriend material. Been there, done that. No more women for a while.”

“If you say so,” Hazukk said. “I don’t know how you even managed to get Asami Sato to spare the time of day for you, nevertheless go on a date.” 

“She drove into me with a motorbike,” Mako said, smiling at the sound of it. Hazukk roared with laughter.

“Now THAT,” he said, catching a breath, “is something you HAVE to tell me about another time.”

“Yeah sure,” Mako agreed. “I don’t see why not.”

The two men parted ways outside the bar and Mako walked clumsily back home. Halfway there, he decided to talk a shortcut through an alleyway, and when thought he was turning a corner, he just faced a dead end. That’s annoying, he thought, and turned around.

Mako froze, and got into a boxing stance. There were roughly eight men facing him at the entrance of the alley. He could’ve tried to play it off and ignore them, but he wasn’t stupid. They were looking very menacingly at him.

“What’s your issue?” he called out, hoping to be wrong.

“You,” the man who seemed to be the leader. “We heard you and your friend earlier. You turned your back on us and joined the rats.” The last word was dripping with malice.

Must be from the Triple Threats, Mako thought. “I am a police officer and I have the authority as well as the duty to arrest you,” he called out. “Walk away now and we can forget this ever happened.” 

“Cocky words for a dead man,” the leader snarled. He was stocky, roughly mid-thirties, with a sleeveless denim jacket on despite the cold. His biceps and triceps were huge, but didn’t any tattoos which would’ve completed the biker look.

“I’m giving you one last chance,” Mako bluffed, his heart rate rising quickly. He was snookered. He could maybe take on three at one time at the most, but eight was completely out of the question. He knew that these guys wouldn’t be willing to let him off lightly. As Zolt had said back in the day, No witnesses. 

The leader pulled his right fist back and blasted a quick fireball at Mako. Mako ducked under it, but barely managed to cancel out a volley of water coming right his way. He let off a quick barrage of fireballs, but only one made really contact, with a scrawny guy who hadn’t managed to get out of the way in time. The others started joining in. Mako did very well to wave away a couple of the fire shots, and he caught a water whip with a short blast of lighting. He then unleashed a tunnel of fire and smiled to himself as two of the water benders cried out in agony. 

His smile was momentary though as he caught a brick clean in the ribs that had been shot through the fire at a high velocity. He doubled over, the fight done before it really even began. He clutched at his broken rib and howled in pain, his hand now covered in blood. 

“Typical,” the leader said. “All talk, no-“ A loud clunk was heard, and the man fell face-first on the concrete , a large gash in the back of his head, bleeding freely. Before anyone could even turn around, five more large ice cubes connected with 100% accuracy, and the five remaining members crumbled. Mako looked at his saviour, his vision blurry. He winced in pain at the sudden movement of moving his head, which also meant the skin of his torso shifting slightly. 

“Let me look at that,” the person said, and Mako couldn’t believe his luck. The waterbender rushed over to Mako with a large amount of water hovering over his flat palm. “It isn’t the cleanest, unfortunately, what you expect with canal water, but it’ll have to do.”

“How did you- EASY Hazukk!” Mako hissed as Hazukk rolled him over onto his back. Hazukk ignored Mako and pressed the water on where the cut was flowing freely.

“Oh dear, it seems that it’s broken,” Hazukk said, as he closed up the wound. “I’ve done what I can, but no hard physical activity for a week.”

“You haven’t answered my question,” Mako said. “I appreciate the help, but how did know I was in trouble?”

“I specialise in investigative journalism,” Hazukk said. “Didn’t I mention that earlier? Oh well, I guess not. I noticed them follow you out earlier, and I had three to myself, but they were amateurs. Sorry you had to take that hit, but I had to wait for them to attack you so it would be defending you and not assault.”

“We would’ve got away with it if you’d hit them before they attacked,” Mako said, gingerly standing up. “It’s not even a technical thing, they clearly only had one intention.”

“But now they have no loopholes, and besides, nothing but the absolute truth,” he said and held out a card.

Mako took the card without even looking and shook Hazukk's hand. “You know, in the force, we don’t really like journalists but you could be a reliable one maybe. You seem like you mean well. Honestly. I’m a detective as well, so you could maybe even pitch in with a bit of work if we're short on numbers.”

“Let’s not talk about that now,” Hazukk said, and he went up in Mako’s opinion, not jumping at the offer like most would. “There’s a bigger issue right in front of us,” he said, gesturing to the men slumped on the floor, and the two with serious burns, which Mako had inflicted, and one with a minor burn who hadn’t gotten out of the way of his first shot.

“I’ll get back to you,” Mako promised, walking over to a phone booth to call for police wagon. 

“I’m available whenever you need me,” Hazukk promised back as he began to use water from the nearby canal to seal up their wounds before he froze the unconscious men into place. He didn’t bother with the waterbenders, they’d be lucky to stand with their injuries.


	5. Never Any Time

Two and a half weeks later

Korra waited nervously at the track, waiting for a certain someone to show up. She had a bit of a stomach bug, and probably wasn’t able to go doing too much bending as it was taking a lot out of her at the minute. But that didn’t stop her from walking around, and talking. She wore a grey hoodie to prevent herself from being recognised. Sadly, it also turned out to be a miserable day, the heavens pouring down from above. 

She stood under the flimsy iron shelter and listened to the raindrops splashing down. It was probably just her nervousness, but she could feel every ping and pong on the roof as it rattled on and on, cutting into her senses. There were times where she felt like stopping the rain mid-air just to listen to the abrupt silence. She was getting more and more irritable recently, and found it hard not to shout at someone when whatever she wanted didn’t immediately go her way. It felt like a result of both her bug and having to slowly wind people from different lands down to her opinion, wearing her patience wafer-thin.

The train creaked in two minutes late, and the passengers shot out from the doors straight into shelter. After about a minute or two, Korra spotted her girlfriend. Asami, as beautiful as ever, if looking a little worn, walked out and put her umbrella up. She scurried like a mouse, keeping her head down to avoid unnecessary attention, and wasted no time in racing to get to one of the many cabs waiting in the parking lot. Korra frowned, obviously having not thought her plan through, and jogged after her. 

“Hey there,” Korra whispered seductively in her ear, latching onto Asami's shoulders and pulling her back into her own body. Asami jumped and twisted around forcefully, only to see it wasn’t an 50-year-old man, and someone much more welcome under her umbrella.

“Phew,” Asami said, relieved, and gave Korra a quick peck on the lips. “If you weren’t careful I could’ve elbowed you there.”

“That would’ve hurt. How would you have made up for me, I wonder?” Korra said playfully, wasting no time at all to let Asami know what she had on her mind.

“I can think of a few ideas,” Asami said playfully, and turned around face-to-face with Korra. “I’m not sure if you’d like them.”

“Give me an example,” Korra played along, and Asami pulled her into a deep kiss, right there and then, which seemed to last an eternity, but even that wasn’t long enough. They stood there for a minute; three weeks’ worth of fantasizing about each other banished into their memories. When they were done, they simply just stood there, both of them with a hand on the umbrella hilt, resting against each others' forehead.

“Can we fly home?” Asami asked, her eyes still shut. “Carry me in one arm while cling onto you for dear life? It’s a lot quicker and cheaper than a cab all the way to my place.”

“Of cou-“ Korra started, and then remembered what had happened not too long ago. Her stomach lurched when she remembered the foggy details of what followed. She fell into silence, the cold now painfully enclosing her due to her standing still for about a minute.

“What’s wrong baby?” Asami asked, brushing a loose strand of hair from Korra’s eye. “Is there something wrong?”

Korra hesitated. She wanted the ground to swallow her up, and she technically could make that happen. But she wasn’t allowed to break down, not after all that she’d done. “It’s just… that… I broke my glider while sparring. And I haven’t ordered a new one yet.” The lie came out awkwardly enough but Asami didn’t notice.

“Don’t worry about that,” Asami said, snuggling up to Korra for warmth. “I know you haven’t done anything to hurt me.”

Korra's heart practically stopped. Of all the sentences that Asami could’ve uttered, that just had to the one. It was the universe’s way of pretending to offer a hand up, but just slapping her instead.

“Why don’t we get back to yours?” Korra suggested, hoping her voice wouldn’t crack. Thankfully, it didn’t. “It’s getting kinda chilly.”

“I thought firebenders didn't feel the cold,” Asami said,” Asami said, not moving. “And you’re strong enough to heat the both of us surely.”

“I’ve been a little under the weather recently, so I prefer not to bend when possible.”

“Do you have a temperature?” Asami said, now worried. She was about to start mothering Korra, an annoying yet adorable charm to her. One of many.

“It’s barely worth mentioning,” Korra assured her. “I wasn’t even going to bother telling you.”

“In that case, how about we snuggle up against the fire back at mine?” Asami suggested. “I don’t care if I get it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Korra agreed, and she whistled for a cab.

It was 5pm, and Korra was beginning to get really irritable. She tried to relax on the couch, her head resting on Asami’s lap. The fire was just a tiny bit too hot. She used her exhalation to lower the fire down a bit, but after a minute it was too cold. Asami was fine, her eyes shut and enjoying the serenity. Or at least trying to. She couldn't lay there peacefully with Korra squirming around every thirty seconds.

“What’s wrong?” Asami eventually asked, and Korra sighed.

“I don't know if I'm being honest,” Korra opened up. “I've been getting pretty irregular mood swings over the last few weeks, and this sickness in my stomach won’t go away. I can’t do much apart from just sit at a meeting and try not to vomit.”

“Vomit?” Asami asked, and sat up. “Korra, you know you don’t have to hide anything from me.”

Korra did the same and gently rested her hand on top of Asami’s. They met eyes. Korra could’ve had Zaheer right outside the door, and she wouldn't have cared. All that mattered was those emerald eyes, sparkling in the dim light. Korra cupped Asami’s left cheek. Her fingers trailed to her left ear, and intertwined themselves in that one strand of hair that was never tucked behind her ear, but curled around in front of it.

Asami felt herself leaning closer to Korra, as she had many times before in the past, and would hopefully do many times in the future. She smiled her cunning trademark smile, one when a seemingly brilliant deal popped into a head. Maybe for the rest of our lives. I certainly wouldn’t mind.

She stared into the black pupils perfectly circled by a symmetrical sea of light blue, that sat square in her girlfriend’s eyes. They had seen so much and more, lying helplessly in the snow as Raava was cut into pieces and she couldn't do anything about it. Watching as her father was chucked off a cliff, by a man who only had the ability to kill them because of the power her last-minute decision had caused, to what looked like was his demise. She felt so empathetic, having been through enough trauma herself. She chuckled at the next thought. Listening to Prince Wu at any given time.

“I’ll see a doctor,” Korra murmured, and moved her fingers under Asami’s chin. She placed her thumb and index finger as if she were about to squeeze it. Korra began to lean in. Asami followed suit, but then Korra blew, and Asami’s hair started rippling back in the breeze. She tried to close the gap, but quickly found the current to be too strong to advance through. Korra was giving her that look too. 

She won’t win that easily, Asami thought to herself, but failed to back it up a second later. Korra placed a hand on Asami’s breast, those boundaries long gone, and used airbending to gently blow her on her back. Korra jumped on top of her girlfriend, and without hesitation, pinned Asami’s hands down by her head. 

“Looks like you’ll be listening to me tonight,” Korra declared smugly. “Unless you’re ready to face the repercussions.”

“What are they?” Asami played along, biting her bottom lip.

“Oh you don’t want to know,” Korra threatened mockingly, in her role.

“I doubt that,” Asami taunted. Korra smirked, and leaned in for a passionate kiss. They connected, but no longer had they started did the telephone start clanging. Korra glanced over at it, and frowned, before turning back to the only thing she wanted to look at. They clashed lips again, but it just kept on ringing. 

Asami groaned and pushed Korra off of her. Korra whimpered, but Asami didn’t bother keeping up the game. As she stomped over to the telephone, she pondered if she could make it so that it could read a room’s atmosphere, and shut up. She practically ripped the earpiece off, and shoved it against her ear. She listened intently for a few moments, and then nodded, disappointed but in no position to refuse.

“Who is it?” Korra asked, seeing Asami’s face drop.

“Beifong. At headquarters. Now.”

Korra moaned, and then rolled off the couch, grumpy. She knew she had her duties, but just a little bit of free time wouldn’t go unappreciated. She pushed herself up off the lush carpet, and stood up straight. She wobbled temporarily from vertigo, but shook her head a couple of times to get rid of it. Her long hair flew beautifully from side to side, like a goddess, even if a lot of the time she certainly lacked the manner of one. Asami looked at the woman in front of her wishfully, thinking about what could have been. 

“Next time,” Korra promised, more out of hope than certainty.

“I knew what I signed up to. Go get ‘em, baby.”

“They'll pay for what they've done, whoever they are,” Korra said, and that was definitely a promise. The fire in the fireplace flared briefly as Korra made that statement. “Mind if I take your car?”

“Sure. But don't take the one with the dodgy paintwork, I'm still working on that,” Asami called out as Korra walked to the garage, fuming. “Don't overdo any bending in your condition!” Asami added, but it fell on deaf ears, which both annoyed her and was to her satisfaction.

“Be back later,” was the reply she got, and a few minutes after, the rev of an engine echoed around the halls. Asami walked upstairs and into the office that her father had spent so much time in during her childhood. She placed a lonely hand on the gleamingly clean window, watching silently as the most important person to her rolled out the driveway and in the direction of the general city.

Korra arrived at the station twenty minutes later, with most of the rush-hour traffic heading out of the city making life much easier. She pulled up a few blocks away, and parked on the side of the road. She’d made sure to get an old car that no-one would bother stealing, as she’d had that problem once before when she’d decided to drive 'for a change.’

There was a full moon coming tonight. Korra felt its power already pushing and pulling at her as twilight immerged. She bent some water from a nearby puddle over her palm and spun it repeatedly. She watched it circle around endlessly, in a constant loop. She made it go faster, and then abruptly stopped it. The water hung there, still, like a predator waiting for its prey. Korra looked at it absentmindedly for a second, then made it explode into a mist. She shook her head, snapping out of her gaze, and hurried to the station. 

She pushed open the wide doors and made her way to Beifong's office. When she entered, the stern woman was fussing over the details of a board with five other officers, including Mako. There was a sixth man there that Korra had never seen before, dressed in dark clothing. He was standing at the edge of the group, like he didn’t belong in the briefing. 

“What’s the issue?” Korra asked. She didn’t show any attitude because she knew that Beifong hated asking for help from Korra, and avoided it for her own pride whenever possible. It was only when something serious came up that she needed Korra. “Triads? Robbery? Murderer?”

Beifong looked over at Korra and stopped talking, annoyed that she had been interrupted. “So good of you to join us, Korra,” she greeted. Beifong had become much more open ever since that visit to Zaofu a few years back but when working, she was to the point and relationships went out the window.

“You specifically called for me,” Korra stated.

“Yes, and listen up now that you’re here,” Beifong ordered, and Korra complied. “Mako’s new acquaintance (she treated the word as if it were a euphemism) has just tipped us off a supposed drug shipment coming from Yu Dao. There’s believed to be somewhere in the region of six to seven million yuans worth of cocaine stashed on a ship called The Dolphin.”

Korra whistled at the figure. That was a LOT of money.

“Sorry for interrupting but,” Korra said, something she probably had started saying in her sleep after a meeting, “that's just stupid. I’ve only ever heard of one or two cases of stashes of over a million’s worth being found. Whoever tipped you off must’ve been playing with you.”

“That was my initial reaction too,” Beifong said, and pointed to the guy who was out of place, “but that man right there submitted it in person, and Mako backed him up, saying that he owes him his life.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Korra awkwardly. “I didn’t mean it like tha-“

“Oh no, it's completely fine,” the man said, rushing over and grabbing Korra’s hand in a firm handshake. Korra visibly paled and tried to pull away, but he was strong. “I don’t think we’ve ever formally been introduced before. My name is Hazukk.”

“Hi Hazukk, I’m Korra, as you probably already know,” Korra said, hating how she had to say that to everyone she met. “What do you mean never 'formally' met? Do you work here?” 

He finally released his strong, cold hand from Korra’s. “I used to be on the Fire-“

“Shut it,” Beifong interrupted. “We didn't let a journalist in just so you could introduce yourself to the Avatar.” 

Is Beifong going soft? Korra thought to herself she thought to herself as she heard that word. She caught Mako’s eye and he tried to express wordlessly to give Hazukk a chance, but Korra avoided it. She had been burying the thoughts of the night just over a fortnight ago, and she was finally beginning to convince herself that it was just a dream. However, feelings of guilt and betrayal were creeping to the surface at the sight of his face. She got his message, but turned her head to the board on the wall and locked it in that position.

“If the information is correct, then the shipment will arrive on Saturu Harbour at 10pm,” she continued. She made her come out two feet and become rigid to point at various parts of the board. “There will be a heavy presence there from the Red Monsoon. We can’t march in with a battalion or else the ship will simply not dock, and we'll have a huge fight on our hands. Therefore, I will have 20 men on standby for my signal a few blocks away.  
“There will be two teams, spearheaded by myself and Executive Commander Sim. Korra, Mako and Hazukk will obey his orders at all times. Michael and Juan will come with me. I have chosen Sim's unit to pursue anyone fleeing the scene, due to your combat abilities. My unit will surround the delivery once confirmed and guard it, and that point the men on standby will arrive as backup.

“We’ll be hiding in a crate to get close. The chances are that we’ll be hiding there for at least an hour if we want to avoid detection. No talking! I'll let everyone know when we bounce. Especially you,” Beifong finished, glaring at Hazukk. “Any questions?” she added.

“Yes,” said Korra, temporarily throwing all manners away. “Why are we letting a journalist come along on a top-secret police mission? If he gets injured, then it’ll be your fault directly!” Korra wasn’t happy about this. “And what outlet do you work for anyway?” she asked, directing the last question at Hazukk. 

“The Sun,” Hazukk stated matter-of-factly, standing up taller. “And if you don’t mind, I’m more than a capable fighter.”

“WHAT?!” Korra practically shouted. She glared at Mako, putting aside her other issues for the minute. This was beyond a joke. It was bad enough letting him this far into the building, and ludicrous that he was going on a mission like this without any training, which most officers in the force spent years building up to. 

But the fact that he was with The Sun really just pissed on the badge. There were stories about how in the Earth Kingdom they had made up stories to cover for the government, like when a rockslide had killed the majority of a small town, and that the government ignored their requests for a proper squad of elite earthbenders to help remove the boulders. When nearly a hundred people had been killed, the Sun devised a sickening story saying that the town had refused help, and pickpocketed the dead. There was more to the front-page headline, but Korra didn’t need to know it all. She got the gist of what they were about.

“This man saved my life,” Mako defended him. “I know that you may have misgivings about his career stereotype, but Hazukk is an old friend of Bolin and I. You couldn’t have told me his name a couple of minutes ago. Don’t judge a bender by their-“

“I’m watching you,” Korra threatened, and walked up to Hazukk, squaring up to him, but he just looked down at her innocently. “You’re just like Tarrlok, a rat who takes all the praise. What’s even in for you?”

“That’s enough,” Sim said, coming in between them. He was 5’9, stubble growing around his lips but not his jaw. He was obviously very strong despite him looking like he was in his forties. His red eyes demanded acceptance and the various nicks on his face gave him a stoic look. “We have a mission at hand and you will obey my commands until the mission is concluded, and that means no fighting.” 

“Please, trust is essential,” Hazukk said, slowly lowering Sim's hand from his face. “The force has generously permitted me exclusive coverage to the scene in order for my information and assistance on the scene. Does that answer your question?”

“And you just allowed him on the basis of a tip? It could be a trap for all you know!” Korra gave out, directing it at Lin Beifong.

“I wouldn’t have bothered either, but Mako really vouched for him, so I’m willing to trust my commander's word on this,” Beifong informed her. “I trust him more than you, if it helps. He’s your friend, isn’t he? Then show him a little faith.” 

The word 'faith' struck a deeper chord with Korra than Beifong intended. Asami had put her faith in Korra, and Korra pissed on that. She was no-one to be talking to about loyalty and values.

“Ok,” said Korra quietly, taking everyone aback. Everyone had been expecting more of an argument from her, but submissing like this wasn’t normal of the Avatar known for her stubbornness and getting what she wanted, and definitely not so suddenly. Beifong, although surprised, didn’t show it and grunted something inaudible in approval.

“It’s already coming up to six, Chief,” one of the commanders said. “We need to get there good and early.”

“That’s for the best,” Beifong agreed, and tossed a pile of dark clothes at Korra. “Throw them on.” Korra nodded without saying anything, and put them on over what she was already wearing. The seven left the office and headed for the edge of the rooftop. There’d be no cars for this mission.

When they arrived there, Beifong punched out in front of her, keeping her body square, and the cable took a second to travel the distance of the street and pierce the granite of the building opposite they were facing. Juan grabbed Mako tightly by the waist, like Sim had with Hazukk, and followed suit. Korra used airbending to hop gracefully over to the Chief of Police, but she felt her stomach lurch as she did it.

Ignore it, Korra thought, and the unit pushed on, unaware of her poor health, towards their destination.

Any feedback is very helpful, hope you enjoyed! R&R!


	6. A Trip Down Memory Lane

Would just like to preface this by saying thanks to The_Great_Pipster for leaving kudos. It really does mean a lot. Enjoy!

There was a strange atmosphere in the crate. Korra and Hazukk were both restless the entire time, especially Korra, who had a sudden craving for sea prunes. She didn’t know what it was, maybe the thick smell of oil that had probably leaked in this crate not too long ago, or the tides constantly falling in on themselves from the irregular shape of the dock, reminding her of when she stayed at Air Temple Island. She was very needy, but kept her mouth shut. She knew the importance of this mission, and she could always have her sea prunes later.

Hazukk’s heart was beating fast enough to supply blood to three bodies, he was practically about to explode. He didn’t say anything though, fair play to him. She been told that he was in investigative journalism, but there was no way he’d gone near anything this big before. If he hadn’t been the one who insisted on coming, she would’ve felt sorry for him.

After what felt like days in the crate, made all the more longer by the razor-sharp silence, Mako lit the dimmest of flames in his palm, barely enough to light up Beifong. Her stern expression was covered by the shadow of her hand. She counted down to three with her fingers, then nudged the door fully open, unlocking it from the other side using metalbending. The others quickly followed her out, and a combination of earthbending and metalbending followed, the seven being vaulted onto the eight-crate high tower. Korra used airbending to soften their landing, but it was only needed for Hazukk. The metalbenders had retracted their soles for a quiet landing.

“You wouldn’t believe what I'm seeing, Chief,” Commander Sim said, astonished at a man he was looking at in the distance. “It’s Shinoda himself. Dead Man Shinoda has made an appearance.”

There was an audible gasp from Hazukk, but none of the others chastised him, not even Lin Beifong. Korra felt left-out, but she didn’t want seem stupid in front of the others so she whispered in Hazukk’s ear what the big deal with him was. He wasn’t his usual composed self like when they set out, and his voice was trembling. It broke when he answered her.

“Kenichi Shinoda was notorious a few years back. It was a while before the Equalist Movement gained popularity. It was said that Amon had killed him full stop. In fact, his 'death' was what got Amon's first support to start gaining traction.”

“What’s so scary about him?” Korra said, phrasing her question differently.

Hazukk looked her dead in the eye, and his expression was grave. “No-one in the papers wrote anything about the Agni Kais back when he was around because when they were criticised by a journalist, that journalist would be kidnapped, tortured, raped and then killed. I remember seeing a mutilated body in the park as I was heading to work when I was fifteen. It was his inner circle that bragged about these crimes, but he led and ordered it all. He was never seen in public, but everyone knew his face.”

Hazukk paused and took a deep breath before echoing an old saying:

“Not even the devil dares double-cross Kenichi Shinoda.”

“Wow,” Korra said, her first time ever hearing about this man. “But I thought that this was the Red Monsoon. What’s this about the Agni Kai Triad?”

“That’s just as surprising as Kenichi Shinoda being here,” Hazukk replied, whispering. “The Agni Kais and the Red Monsoon hate each other with a passion. Whatever this operation is, it’s clearly bigger than their personal differences, which is saying something.”

She stared at the person the others all had their eyes on. He was a skinny man, about 5’6, mid-sixties, and on closer inspection, was missing his left arm. One of the officers, Juan, pointed this out.

“You’re right,” Beifong said. “We never heard anything about a missing limb. It may have been Amon who did that.”

Mako stared at Shinoda. He was responsible. It was his fault. After so many fruitless hours of searching, he was delivered to Mako.

***

“Please, please, we have nothing else, I have a family to feed,” San pleaded, his face bloodied and burnt from the fire whip. His wife had tried to fight the man in front of them, but she was no fighter. Sure, she had the basic ability to firebend, but she’d never had the time to develop it because she had to earn money when she was younger.

“Who do you think you are?” the firebender snarled, causing eight-year-old Mako and six-year-old Bolin to hold on even tighter to each other in the corner.

“I’m so, so sorry,” San repeated for the umpteenth time. “Forgive her, I’ll pay double next month, triple, quadruple, anything!”

“We have a policy at the ‘Kai,” the man said, lifting up his head and showing off the infamous ‘K' carved into the side of his neck. He tapped the scar. “Kenichi Shinoda doesn’t accept debts.”

“SAN!” Naoki screamed.

San's screams were heard all throughout the apartment block as he was cut down by the Red Monsoon member. Bolin wailed, but despite the tears flowing freely down his cheeks, Mako couldn’t wrench his head away, frozen, speechless. Their father, who had been on his knees, crumbled like the old tower blocks he used to set up with the two boys. His charred face fell directly in the vision of his sons, although his eyes didn’t see anything. His body stayed in that position, his barely recognisable face in perfect view for the children. Naoki rushed over to cover her boys with her body.

“Daddy, no!” Bolin screamed in anguish. “Daddy, get up, please!”

“You two'd better learn who runs this city,” the member threatened, turning to face them. His eyes bore holes in the momentary gaze at the young boys. “Your old man thought we were lenient. Can’t have that spreading arou-“

“Please, go away,” Naoki whimpered. The firebender cocked an eyebrow.

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE,” he screamed, infuriated, “TO INTERRUPT ME, A MEMBER OF THE PRESTIGIOUS AGNI KAI TRIAD?” The apartment shook as if his words were an earthquake.

“I will teach your boys a lesson that they will never forget,” he growled, and grabbed Naoki by the hair. She temporarily let go of Mako and Bolin due to her instinctive reaction to stop the pain at her scalp. She didn’t get to even touch her hair before she was thrown across the floor. She hit her head pretty bad on the tiles with a whimper.

“Mommy!” Bolin shouted, reaching out with a hand even though she was too far away to reach.

“Sweethearts,” Naoki spluttered, coughing up blood. They just sat there, traumatised. “Mako, take care of Bolin. One day, you’ll both grow up to be strong, handsome, successful men. Know that I always have and will love you, no matter what your-“

“Sweethearts, I love you soooo much. How touching,” the man taunted. “I can barely keep myself from breaking down right now.”

He slashed at Naoki, and one second later, Mako and Bolin became orphans.

***

Mako’s fists clenched and a small flame sparked in his nostrils. This was the man who was indirectly responsible for his parents' murder. There was no doubt about it. He ground his teeth together, and a near insatiable rage boiled up inside him.

“Mako,” a voice said behind him, and he looked around to see a sympathetic Beifong put a hand on his shoulder. “I understand your pain, but stick to the plan, and you can have your revenge. If we go in all guns blazing, by the looks of it, we'll be outnumbered 7:1, plus Shinoda.”

Mako tensed his lips for a minute, then nodded briefly. He was glad Beifong hadn’t tried to talk him out of it. She wasn’t stupid, she had held a grudge for over thirty years for something that paled in comparison to him. She knew his history with the Agni Kais was personal, and just got him to control his temper. “Where are we sneaking in? I can see about fifty people running crawling around here.”

“I’m sorry,” Hazukk apologised. “I thought that there would be a low-key presence from the gang to avoid attracting attention. I was wrong.”

“No-one could nor would have predicted that the Agni Kai and Red Monsoon Triads would be working together, and especially that Shinoda would show his face. It’s a good thing we brought the Avatar. We'll need you to in top fighting shape if worse comes to worst,” Sim said, and nodded to Korra. She nodded back and gulped. Her senses were going haywire. It had happened at the last full moon too; she had been in a fit, bending every drop of water in the vicinity at whatever caught her attention. She couldn’t back out now though.

“Whatever they’ve got in there, it’s got to be priceless,” Beifong said. “Whenever they bring out their special- Wait a minute, look at the amount of people guarding that crate.”

A plain red crate was being forklifted off the ship, followed by a similar black one. About twenty men guarded them both, circling the shipments. 

“There’s no time to sneak around under the ship,” Sim said, his fists tightening. “What should we do?”

“I hate to say it, but we have to jump in head first. Now,” Beifong ordered, grinding her teeth together.

“T-t-that’s suicide!” Hazukk stuttered. But one icy glare from Lin Beifong herself was enough to silence him, and he regained his composure. “Very well.”

“Korra, create an airlift for Hazukk and Mako. Let’s go men.”

The bay was quiet, apart from the grunts of the triad members. Not a soul dared appear careless right next to their usually biggest enemy, and particularly with Agni Kai boss Kenichi Shinoda and Monsoon leader Jiren there as well, somewhere in the shadows. Suddenly, a bright green flare shot up in the sky. 

“Shit,” Shinoda cursed. “This was top secret! Prove your loyalty and fight the thieves!” His voice rasped from shouting too much when he was younger, but everyone heard him. “Protect the cargo at all costs!”

The yard erupted into a hotbox of shouts and commands, and amid the commotion, a large gust of air knocked one of the platinum forklifts over, toppling the black crate and nearly crushing a few members. Lin Beifong and two other metalbending cops swooped down from the darkness of the top of a pile of crates. Lin crashed into the ground, sending a ripple in the concrete all around her. It sent a few flying, but more just filled their places. Juan and Michael landed directly behind her, and they formed a triangle, back to back. 

The gang members wasted no time in directing the brunt of their power on the trio. None of the attacks hit though, as these were some of the best cops in the business. Any volley of water was simply countered with a block of earth. Any fire blast was blocked with a pillar of earth, or with a very difficult technique whereby the cable was used as a fan, which took years to master. Lin was frustrated though, as they couldn’t aim to kill any of the gangsters. That would be police brutality in the eyes of the media, ironically. There had been instances of real brutality recently against innocents by lower officers, so there was little margin for error.

The waterbenders by the dock reacted quickly to this, and large columns of water were dragged out of the pitch-black bay. However, it wasn’t quick enough, as Korra, Mako, Sim and Hazukk floated down on an airlift by the edge of the water. Hazukk wasted no time, and landed on the water, creating a board of ice to stand on. He glided over to the nearest man and propelled himself directly behind him. A whip of water with an ice tip had been attached onto his arm, and he smashed the ice against the Red Monsoon member’s head. He toppled, unconscious.

Korra’s eyes flashed momentarily with Raava's light and she used the power to send a powerful gust of air at all fifteen of the waterbenders lined up by the dock. This only worked partially though, as the sixth man saw what was coming and coiled his column around his body, before freezing it instantly. Such was the power of her blast, it smashed, and five of the waterbenders groaned, all unconscious. Hazukk made a beeline for that sixth man, a thick trail of water following after him.

Another guy behind the man who Hazukk was running to appeared shoulder to shoulder with his companion. Hazukk got up close and lead with a heavy hook, intending to connect with his fist and not the water. The first waterbender was surprised at such an upfront attack, especially from another waterbender during the full moon, but it didn’t matter. He leaned back just enough to avoid the punch, and the second waterbender curved a volley of water at Hazukk with a roundhouse kick. It was going to hit Hazukk in his temple, but he raised his forearm just in time. That prevented a concussion, but was thrown off the side into the freezing November bay. That was lame, he thought. I shouldn’t have thrown all my body weight in that punch, and now I’m lucky not to have a broken skull because of it.

He wasn’t alone for long though, as a short, bright flash lit up his vision under the surface, and two more bodies, the men he had just faced, broke the ripples that he had created a few seconds ago. 

Korra was having some trouble up top, but her job was made a lot easier by the way they were lined up. They couldn’t get into position in time to face her in more than just single file, and although their waterbending was considerably stronger under the full moon, so was hers. She waved away any attempted streams or shards coming her way without even thinking about it. Her mood swing had turned violent, and she had the perfect outlet to express herself.

She stomped on the ground, and ten blocks of concrete jumped up a few metres in front of her. She turned her hip sideways to face them and used her left heel to fire them at the remaining eight water benders all at once. Without bringing her leg down, she spun a full circle and unleashed a huge trailing fireball, curling around the blocks so that it would collide with the Monsoon members at the same time as the blocks. She used an airlift to propel herself over her enemies to just above the water, narrowly avoiding the ship. Careless, she noted.

A water-tornado rose to meet her elegantly. She ripped any water the waterbenders were about to use to defend themselves out of their grasps simultaneously. It didn’t work completely, but it threw them off enough that they wouldn’t be able to neutralise her attack. She held her hands out to her left side, and tugged violently to the right. A wall of air slammed into the last man, which continued onto the fourth last man, who crashed into the back of the fourth remaining man. He had just had his arms broken from two of the blocks, and salt rubbed into the wound by three men falling on them in front of him, then those from behind adding to the dogpile. The entire attack from start to finish took eleven seconds.

The cries of the men reached every set of ears around the yard as flames washed over them. Whatever water shield they’d managed to erect had been far too weak. Korra found herself wondering how she didn’t care one bit for their lives and that she may have overdone it, but empathy wasn’t welcome here. It was her duty as the Avatar to be ruthless sometimes. They weren’t like Kuivera, they weren’t deluded in some ideology. No head was turned for long though, as Beifong and her men made sure. 

Korra watched a spluttering Hazukk rise out from the water onto the edge, coughing. She smirked, and turned her attention to an empty nearby crate. She ripped off part of it and used it to secure the waterbenders hands and feet to the ground. Not that they were in any condition to be moving. They were alive, but just barely.

Mako and Sim used the element of surprise to take out several members before they even knew what hit them, most the gangs' attention diverted to Beifong’s team. Sim used his metal cable to whip the backs of twelve men. It was lethal, and they were hospitalised with one hit. Their flesh had been soft and tender, not tensed, so that made it so much worse. Sim punched the ground, and a wall appeared in front of him and Mako, just in time to stop the searing fire coming at them. When the attack ceased, he opened his hands but kept his fingers shut. He palmed the wall, and it broke into six different pieces, flying at the terrified triad members, Monsoon and Agni Kai alike.

Mako charged out when the wall was broken up and attacked like a man possessed. He’d always thought everything through before; is the risk greater than the reward, can I get away with it, what’s the worst-case scenario if I fail? But none of these thoughts went through his mind as he threw himself at the water and firebenders. This was revenge, and when he attacked his flame burned all the brighter because of it.

The first man was a firebender, and he powered a hard backhand lit on fire straight for Mako's face. Mako grabbed his wrist before it connected and used the same move to break the other guy's nose. A burly waterbender tried to get him into a chokehold, but one glance was all Mako needed to confirm his backwards kick was for the right person. The waterbender screamed as he was enveloped in flames. 

Two men immediately came for Mako, both firebenders, before he even put his leg down and swiped his standing leg with a fire blast Mako could do nothing about. He landed heavily on his side, but the pain drove his ambition even more.

“My parents won’t have died in vain!” he shouted, and used a technique he’d been taught in the force. He opened his mouth, and screamed at them. Only words didn’t come out, fire did. It was a move created by the late General Iroh the First, and boy was it handy. The firebenders just about managed to part the flame, but didn’t react quick enough to Mako coming through the fire and uppercutting one of them right under the jaw. Mako used the momentum of the uppercut to swing his elbow into the other man’s temple. They both fell, but Mako wasn’t sure the second guy was out, so he grabbed his bloody head and brought it onto the full force of his rising knee. That should do fine, Mako thought, as they fell in a heap, out for the count. 

“AH!” he blurted as a large ice cube hit him clean in between his shoulder blades. He fell to his knees onto the two Agni Kais he’d just grounded. He caught his fall with his hands, but a hose of water beneath him erupted from a drain, sending him a few metres into the air before landing flat on his back, his head bouncing off the hard rock. 

“Not such a hero now, are you?” a man with a scruffy voice jeered him. “Say your prayers.” He began walking over to Mako, then cursed audibly. “More cops!” Mako looked down his body, and saw the platoon arriving. The Red Monsoon and Agni Kai Triad, which a few seconds ago had looked so threatening, now began to split up, no real order to their attacks. A fat cat had landed amongst the pigeons.

Mako looked over to the one remaining forklift, and saw the red crate being loaded onto a truck. He could maybe catch it. But out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shinoda slipping away, with the larger presence of police leaving him no option but to leave. Mako’s blood boiled, and his mind was made up in an instant.

Mako used the momentary distraction to drag his foot in a helicopter kick all around him, and he knocked all those who’d begun to surround him down with one of the hottest fires he’d ever produced. He launched himself to his feet despite what felt like a concussion, and paused at the man who'd just jeered him, now on his back. He slashed at his face, resulting in a cry of agony as the waterbender was scarred for the rest of his life all over his face. Mako took off after Shinoda, his hair wet with his own blood.

The story's picking up a little bit now, finally. If you enjoyed, R&R! Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Hey, I'd just like to preface this by saying this is the first proper fighting chapter. Part of what makes LOK and ATLA so great are the fights, so I've tried my hardest to make up for that with words. If there's anything I can do to make it better, please tell me. Enjoy!

Mako made a beeline for Kenichi Shinoda. He was at the other side of the yard before he slipped away with only three bodyguards in between some crates. One of them was a waterbender, surprisingly, judging by his get-up and snakeskin on his waist, but it made no difference to Mako. He’d dealt with some of the best in the probending business and he hadn’t doubted himself back then either.

Only two people tried to stop Mako out of the fifteen he brushed past. Most of them were too busy fighting off metalbenders, and the two that did barely slowed him down. He nearly fell over his own feet in his haste to pursue Shinoda. He rounded the corner and spotted the four men twenty or so metres away. Shinoda's old age was clearly catching up with him, capable of no more than a quick jog. Mako took a deep breath, then filled the narrow space in between the crates in front of him and his prey with a tunnel of fire. It rushed to meet them, but at the last moment Shinoda turned around, and pointed his index and middle finger at the fire about to consume him. Blue flames exploded from his fingertips and easily countered Mako’s attack.

Perfect combustion, Mako noted, now knowing there was no doubt of the small man's identity. It was an extremely rare ability. It required perfect breathing technique, and something about a strong enough negative desire, without any self-doubt, as far as he knew. But all that mattered now was there was no way it could be anyone else, and that was all the justification Mako needed for the law.

“I’ll take care of him,” the waterbender vouched. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve been itching to bend all night with the full moon.”

“Don’t let me down, 'Ruk,” Shinoda threatened, and the waterbender turned and faced Mako. Shinoda and his two remaining bodyguards continued to flee. He pulled out the water from his snakeskin and stood square, a good distance away still, waiting to see if Mako would make the first move.

“If you run now, you can still get away,” Mako offered. It was pointless, but he was obligated by his oath to offer a chance to surrender. “I will detain you otherwise.” That wasn’t the proper line but his head was spinning to much from the alarming amount of blood he’d lost already.

“No,” 'Ruk replied, and started running towards Mako.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Mako muttered to himself.

Mako threw a heavy fire backhand at 'Ruk, and a huge ball of fire was shot at the waterbender. ‘Ruk looked both ways, then realised that he wouldn’t be able to jump out of the way. He dove into the ground, small pebbles scratching his forearms and tearing up his suit, but the real danger passed overhead. He bounded up from his flat position and closed the gap to three metres. Mako shot a quick fire-jab at 'Ruk. ‘Ruk swiped his hand upwards and a puddle on the ground met the fireball half a foot in front of ‘Ruk’s face. ‘Ruk bent the water out of his snakeskin and hooked a volley of water in a vicious ark. Mako barely managed to raise his arms in time but managed to block the brunt of the attack with his forearms and hands. He was still knocked heavily onto the ground though, and landed with a grunt, his bleeding head spinning from all the movement.

“Retard,” 'Ruk declared, grinning sadistically. “Why the fuck would a firebender dare challenge any decent waterbender during the full moon?” He laughed like a madman, and kicked Mako in the stomach. Mako grunted again, and curled up instinctively. “You’re about to regret your call to heroism. Typical. Young fella gets all worked up about bringing down the triads, and he only ends up dying a lonely, painful death.” 

'Ruk formed a six-inch thick water whip and brought it crashing down on Mako’s side. Mako whelped with the pain, and 'Ruk repeated the action several times without breaking a sweat, continuously inflicting his wrath on Mako for twelve reps straight. He stopped for a breath.

I’m not allowed to die like this, Mako thought as he protected himself the best he could against the whips. When 'Ruk stopped for a moment, Mako grabbed his chance without even thinking. He had been facing 'Ruk, but now he turned his body so that his heels were facing the waterbender, and kicked out as hard as he could at the man’s chin. Flames bellowed at 'Ruk, who just managed to lean back in time. He stumbled a few steps back before regaining his balance. That just about bought Mako enough to get up.

“I didn’t know that the notorious Red Monsoon were going soft,” Mako taunted, then winced. Even though adrenaline was pumping through his veins and numbing the pain, blood was still flowing freely from the back of his head. If he planned to pursue Shinoda, this close combat fight couldn’t go on for too long.

“I’ll show you who’s soft!” 'Ruk screamed. Mako got the impression that he was the typical madman every mob leader hired for a dangerous job, someone that was driven purely by money and their bloodlust.

‘Ruk wildly slashed at Mako with his whip, but it was too high and impulsive, making it easy for Mako to duck under. Mako retaliated with a fire-jab, fire-backhand, followed by another quick jab, the barrage of fireballs coming thick and fast. The second jab caught 'Ruk clean on his left shoulder, and he yelped in pain. Mako wasn’t finished there though. He crouched down, and swept his outstretched leg in the general direction of 'Ruk. A carpet of fire made for 'Ruk's feet, but he jumped, tucking his knees up to his chest. The flames licked his soles, and nearly set fire to the bottom of his trousers. ‘Ruk landed on his heels, and flicked some water from a nearby puddle into his hand. It took a moment to find its shape, and then froze into ice. ‘Ruk now had a five-inch knife.

“Shit,” Mako cursed loudly. He couldn’t run or else Shinoda would get away, and he had no melee weapons on his body. Fire daggers looked cool, but they were useless against a real knife, as the knife would just pass right through the fire.

“Shit indeed,” 'Ruk agreed, and closed the small distance in between them. He poked and stabbed with his knife, but Mako backed away, shimmying from any attack. He couldn’t get a good counter in due to 'Ruk not letting up like he had before with the whip. I’ve got to do something quickly, Mako thought to himself.

However, he didn’t do anything quickly enough, as he backed into a crate. He met eyes with 'Ruk, a fly caught in the web. ‘Ruk smiled viciously. The knife was just beside Mako’s left hip, and 'Ruk didn’t bother pulling it back for power this time. He brought the knife diagonally upwards to Mako’s right shoulder, dragging the tip all along his belly and chest.

“AAAAAAGGGGHHH!” Mako screamed in agony. This was excruciating. He’d only ever felt this much pain when he was bloodbent, not even when he got electrocuted by the spirit energy. He’d had just about every bone in his body broken at some point, whether it be with Korra on Avatar duty, probending or the force, but they all paled in comparison. 

“Checkmate,” 'Ruk stated, and pulled his knife back, now covered in blood, preparing for the final blow. Mako saw this and was suddenly at peace. He’d tried to live a good life, but life wasn’t always fair. He would die a hero. 

But then one image flashed in his mind. The permanent memory of seeing six-year-old Bolin weeping, just after witnessing their parents' murder. I won’t let him go through that again, Mako thought, and brought his blurry vision back to reality. ‘Ruk’s knife was heading straight for his chest, and there wasn’t enough time to dodge it. 

'Ruk frowned as Mako grabbed his wrist, stopping the tip of the knife just as it touched the skin. He pushed harder, but then found his hand getting stupidly hot as Mako enveloped both their hands in a searing heat. ‘Ruk dropped the knife instinctively as his flesh rapidly began to burn. Mako’s was as well, but firebenders were naturally better at when faced with a hot temperature compared to other humans.

“Stop it, you retard! You’ll burn both our hands off if you keep this up!” he demanded, but to no avail. Mako took his opening, and swiped 'Ruk’s front leg inwards without any firebending, making him fall towards Mako. 

Mako stopped the firebending, grabbed 'Ruk's head with both hands, and used his momentum to slam it to his right into the crate behind him. He didn’t let go though, and repeated the action several times until 'Ruk was definitely unconscious. He’d be in bandages for a good while now. He dropped 'Ruk on the floor.

Mako put his hands on his knees and took a deep breath. His head cut had stopped bleeding as much as it had before, and the cut on his body wasn’t as deep as Mako first feared. Still, he’d lost nearly a pint of blood by now, and was feeling weak, but he pushed the pain aside, remembering what he’d set out to do. He grabbed 'Ruk's second snakeskin which hadn’t been used, and downed it in a few seconds. He dropped it on 'Ruk's head, and continued the chase.

If there were any onlookers, they would describe him as half dead. A bloody face due wiping his mouth with his stained hands, his combed hair a dark red colour at the back of his head and a shirt that would look the part on a vampire. Behind him, the battle raged on between the police and the Triads.

***

Mako rounded a corner and saw the trio climbing into a black car. Shinoda got in the back while his two bodyguards took the wheel and shotgun. Mako began to run, but the pain in his torso caused him to double over. He glanced up, and saw the headlights flicker on. They were in a narrow street, and the car was facing his direction 70 feet down the road. He cursed, not having his own motorbike handy.

The engine roared into life and began to rumble down the road before picking up speed. They’d be gone in a matter of seconds. Mako closed his eyes and slowly inhaled, calming himself. He knew that there could be some legal trouble in terms of what Mako was about to do, but this wasn’t a matter of police work. This was vengeance, for his family. Besides, Shinoda wasn’t exactly welcome in police stations.

Mako touched his all of his four index and middle fingers together, and started drawing electricity around him. It crackled, and at that point, the bodyguards began to see Mako. They didn’t stop though, 60 feet now away now.

50 feet.

40 feet.

30 feet.

Mako extended his right arm fully at the car, his fingers pointed, unambiguous.

Lightning zapped the hood. The bodyguards’ expression turned to one of unified fear as the electrical current connected. It took a moment to sink into the car, and then there was a loud bang as the oil inside exploded. A mushroom of smoke and fire billowed upwards, and the wreckage began to cartwheel towards Mako. It stopped just 18 feet away from him. 

Mako exhaled deeply and turned away, coming to terms with what he had just done.

“If you want to do anything, you have to do it yourself.”

Mako froze, then spun on his heels back to the car. A frail Kenichi Shinoda climbed out from the sideways vehicle and hopped onto the road, glaring at Mako. He was bruised, and had a tiny cut on his forehead, but other than that, he was fine. Not a single burn mark on his body, or for that matter, his clothes. He dusted himself off.

“That’s impossible!” Mako stated. “There’s no way anyone could have survived that.”

“My boys Lee and Pang are dead, thanks very much,” Shinoda said, his voice sounding like he needed a glass of water badly, yet he didn’t seem sarcastic. “I’d assume that you killed 'Ruk as well?”

“He’ll be on his way to prison right about now,” Mako growled, his fists whitening from him clenching them together. He was to avenge his parents' death, no matter what it took.

“I hoped you’d done me the favour of killing him,” Shinoda said. “Probably had orders to stab me in my back.

“You bastard!” Mako shouted. Unbeknownst to the both of them, the street had started wondering what the commotion was with that explosion and now there were many people peeking through the curtains.

“They’d have stabbed me in the back sooner or later,” Shinoda said, thinking that Mako was somehow offended by him not caring for his bodyguards. “And wouldn’t hesitate to kill each other either.”

“I’ll kill you,” Mako said quietly, then shouted; “YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR MY PARENTS’ MURDER!”

“I would ask about it, but to be honest I don’t think it’s worth my time,” Shinoda declared, twisting the screw in Mako’s self-control. 

“My mother and my father,” Mako repeated, his eyes bearing holes into Shinoda. Yet the small man calmly returned his gaze, projecting a sense of boredom.

“Shiver me timbers,” Shinoda taunted, smirking. That did it for Mako, and he put all his weight in his punch, an inferno appearing out of his knuckles destined to swallow Shinoda whole. But Shinoda casually raised his only hand in the heart of the fire as in approached him, and closed his fingers. The fire parted right before it would’ve hit Shinoda and only blackened the road.

“You probably think you're a top firebender, don’t you?” Shinoda asked rhetorically. “Well let me tell you, I will kill myself before any colony elephant-rat can truly claim to be a master of combustion!”

Shinoda waved his hand broadly, and a wall of blue fire sped towards Mako. Mako didn’t have enough time to properly part the fire, so he blasted his a flamethrower at Shinoda's wall. His power wasn’t enough though, and the wall exploded on impact with Mako. He was thrown back and hit a letter box, a sharp edge meeting the spot where he had been hit before by a rock in between the shoulder blades. He landed on his ass and struggled to get up. He was badly beaten up from the fight before with the waterbender.

Kenichi Shinoda strolled through the smoke, gathering some of it at his fingertips. “I spent years dedicating my life to learn perfect combustion! It’s easy to get the breathing down, but I had to shut out all my friends for it!” Shinoda pointed his two fingers at Mako again, but this time smoke followed, and engulfed Mako. He started coughing violently, blood coming out as well. He dived out of the smoke and stood his two feet, hands up.

“I was never 'spiritual' enough to become a real combustion bender,” Shinoda continued, and Mako suddenly realised that this feared man was venting his life problems to him, in a strange sort of way. “I was nearly as powerful as Princess Azula herself!”

Mako lobbed a fireball at Shinoda, but it was blocked by a wall of blue fire, standing 7 metres in front of Shinoda. His eyes widened, astounded at the fact that this man could summon fire as far as 7 metres away from his body. The wall lowered itself and Shinoda kept on walking towards Mako. Mako subconsciously felt himself taking a step back.

“I think I’ve done alright, haven’t I?” Shinoda asked, but didn’t wait for an answer, firing his own flamethrower at Mako. Mako jumped out of the way. He was infuriated by the man for the effect he had on his life, but his training kicked in. He had just potentially gotten himself into trouble just a minute ago by murdering two gangsters in cold blood under the name of the law, but he’d think of a way out of it later. There was no comparison in terms of brute strength between him and Shinoda, evidently, and Mako needed all his wits about him to survive this battle.

Mako unleashed a barrage of fire-punches at Shinoda. Each and every one would’ve been enough to knock out a probender, but the Red Monsoon leader shot his own fireballs from his finger gun. Mako started dragging his fingers around the air, electricity trailing after them. He straightened his arms and a bolt of lightning zapped towards Shinoda. Shinoda smiled cunningly, and held out his fingers. The lightning travelled through his arm and around his body, but he wasn’t in pain. He pulled his arm back and then released the full extent of Mako’s attack back at him one second after receiving it. 

Mako would’ve been helpless to do anything about it, but fortunately for him, Shinoda missed in his haste to counter. Mako covered his face as shrapnel from the road shot in every direction. He grunted, frustrated. He couldn’t land one single shot on Shinoda, who was just playing. He grinned in stark contrast to Mako’s grimace.

“Is that the best you can do, boy?” Shinoda called out, his dry voice hard to listen to without cringing. “I honestly don’t know why I was even worried about 'Ruk, if he was beaten by you during the full moon, what would I have to worry about? Maybe I’ll outright murder them all when I get back.”

Shinoda brought his foot up in a long, vertical kick, extremely flexible considering his age. A column of blue flame whizzed at Mako, but he evaded it. The heat off it was nearly enough to make Mako faint as it crashed into a car, resulting in another explosion. Mako realised that he wasn’t going to beat Kenichi Shinoda at long distance fighting, so he started charging at the triad boss.

Shinoda's smile grew all the larger, like a maniac, and he got into a crouching position. He swept his foot across the tarmac and a thick carpet of fire followed. Mako jumped over it, but at the last moment, in his weakened state, he lazily didn’t bring his left knee all the way up to his chest, and his left foot was lower than his right. The blue fire just caught his toe, and made him tip forward. He landed heavily on his front.

“Give up, and I won't torture you too much before I kill you,” Shinoda offered sarcastically.

“Over my dead body!” Mako shouted, and found more energy to get back up and keep up his charge.

“As you wish,” Shinoda replied.

Mako was doing his best not to stop to rest, because he knew as soon as he stopped for a rest, all of his exhaustion would catch up with him. Shinoda was very elegant, surprisingly, with his firebending. He had once been in line to become an Imperial Sage in the Fire Nation, but he wasn’t disciplined enough, according to the rumours. Whatever about him not sticking to rules, he certainly had a very old-fashioned way of firebending. His style was similar to that of how he was told firebenders fought during the 100 Year War. The stances were much more structured, compared to modern style stay-light-on-your- feet, and firebending with your fingers was no easy feat.

Shinoda unleashed another flamethrower, and Mako jumped out of the way, making sure he put plenty of space between him and Shinoda’s attack this time. He closed the gap to just a few yards, all the time running diagonally. The flamethrower washed over the houses as it trailed after Mako, and he heard screams, but Mako didn’t dare turn his attention away for one moment.

Mako got to five yards away from Shinoda and kicked a small but powerful fire at Shinoda’s legs. It was enough to throw Shinoda off balance even though it didn’t connect, making him stumble back. Mako put all his weight into his good hand and torched a huge fireball, similar to what he had thrown at the waterbender, at his opponent. Shinoda tipped his body heavily to his right, now wobbling on one foot. Mako threw a left fire-hook, and for the first time, his fire connected. Shinoda cried out in surprise more than pain. Mako had been stepping towards Shinoda with every attack, and now he could touch him. Mako lit his right foot on fire and went for a head kick on Shinoda’s armless side, intending to connect with both fire and foot.

Mako blinked, seeing his foot stopped just a few inches from Shinoda’s temple. He tried to follow through with the kick, but all his momentum was stopped by Shinoda’s hand. Shinoda stared at him gravely, no longer in the mood for joking. Mako started to fall forward into Shinoda, and without any words, the criminal mastermind sent a blast of fire into Mako’s gut. Mako whelped from the pain as he was hurled up into the air, his shirt burned away to reveal red skin underneath, a combination of dried blood and burnt flesh. Shinoda wasn’t done there though, and he arched a shot that hit Mako horizontally while he was still suspended. Mako crashed into one of the houses and moaned in pain before he was brought back down by gravity. Yellow dots were flying everywhere, and he couldn’t hear anyone coming to rescue him. He nearly blacked out, but forced his eyelids to stay open.

“I’m not in the mood to play games,” Shinoda’s voice rang out, and Mako recognised him as the blurry figure standing not too far away. “You have injured me and my operation. You’ll be the first of many to pay for this!” He raised his fingers to exterminate Mako.

At that moment, Mako’s vision snapped back into focus. He had broken a good few bones, and was on the verge of bleeding out. But then he caught a flash of light reflected off of Shinoda’s fire. It was a young boy peaking through the curtains across the street, and that look told a thousand words. Petrified. Helpless. Innocence being ripped away. Mako looked at his surroundings. The street had been badly ripped up and scorched from the fight. There were two burning wreckages not too far from him. The road was torn up from that lightning attack. A house was on fire. Mako couldn’t let this fight continue on here any longer.

Shinoda attempted to incinerate him with yet another flamethrower, but Mako met it with some of little energy he had left. He stood with his broken ribs and hobbled over to where he had come out onto the street from. He stopped and looked back at Shinoda, who seemed amused.

“What’s the issue?” he challenged. “Finally shown your true colours?”

“You’re a pathetic excuse for a firebender,” Mako spat out, putting his neck on the line. Any previous look of amusement disappeared from Shinoda’s face, replaced by pure rage. “Lightning Bolt Zolt was ten times the firebender you’ll ever be!”

“HOW DARE YOU COMPARE ME TO THAT SORRY EXCUSE OF A BENDER?!” Shinoda shouted. “I WASN’T TOO BOTHERED A MINUTE AGO, BUT NOW I’M GOING TO ENJOY YOUR DEATH!” He followed this up with a fireball pelted at Mako. Mako hobbled out of the way and started jogging as fast as his legs would allow him back to the dock, or just away from the infuriated firebender.

Kenichi Shinoda followed, albeit not too quickly given his old age, and proceeded to belt out blue fire as he gave chase. This fire only damaged the crates though, and Mako countered any blasts that threatened him.

After a few minutes of scurrying around, Mako finally recognised the turn to where the police were. But when he was about to burst out into the welcome arms of reinforcements, he just hit a dead end. A huge fireball was racing towards him and raced into the dead end to avoid being burnt alive. Shinoda round the corner and had a crazy look on his face, full of murderous intent.

“This is where you die!” he screamed, and started drawing electricity from the air. Mako prepared himself to redirect it, but they were way too close for him to be able to react in time. Only a few metres separated them. Mako looked around. The amount that was being drawn meant it was impossible for him to dodge it, and he was in no condition to climb onto a crate out of the way, which would just make him a sitting duck anyway. Then, a suicidal idea popped into his head. 

That’s stupid, he thought. But what are my other options? With that thought, Mako’s mind was decided. He only had a few seconds until he was exterminated, so there was no time for second-guessing himself. 

Shinoda was taken aback when he found the officer who had just been running away from him now coming straight at him. He quickly extended his arm and exhaled.

Mako lunged and grabbed Shinoda’s wrist just in time. He nearly blacked out for the second time in a few minutes as electricity coursed through his body. He grinded his teeth together and stared Shinoda dead in the eyes. 

“You’ll never hurt anyone ever again!” he yelled, and summoned the last dregs of his energy to add to the power that was roaming around his body. He got down on one knee, and pointed his fingers at Shinoda’s heart. 

Kenichi Shinoda was blasted into the crate behind him, and screamed his last breath as Mako bore a hole through his chest with lightning. Mako kept going until he couldn’t hold it anymore. As he fell, and Shinoda’s body was released from the rod that had been holding it, the last flash of lightning lit up the sky as his fingers pointed upwards. He fell, face first, and lay on the ground, limp. He saw Shinoda’s lifeless body across him with a large hole in his chest, and sighed a breath of relief, knowing his job was done. He closed his eyes and let the darkness wash over him.

So what did you think about that? Was the fighting detailed enough, or nah? Please R&R if you enjoyed. Thanks for reading!


	8. A Turn For The Worse

4.4k words in this one! I can say for certain that I'll be posting a chapter every Saturday now, and next week I'll be posting two. Enjoy!

Korra saw Mako run off after who she thought was Kenichi Shinoda. She lowered herself down beside Hazukk and slapped him hard on the back. He coughed out water, but managed to get to his feet a few moments later.

“Get up!” she ordered, unsympathetic. “If it weren’t for me, you’d probably be dead by now.”

“Apologies,” he mumbled, and faced the conflict. These were some of the finest metalbenders around, but the triads were fighting like there was no tomorrow. The waterbenders in particular were actually winning despite their lack of co-ordination. There were already five or six cops out for the count or worse, but the semi-circle that the rest had formed was formidable similarly.

“They need help,” Korra said, then fell to one knee, wincing. She had bottomless pit in her stomach, filled sharp, sudden pains. She definitely was not in good shape to keep on fighting, but it wasn’t like she could just call it a day now. She groaned, and stood back up to her full height. 

“Are you ok?” Hazukk said, nearly putting a hand on her shoulder, then catching himself. “You don’t-“

“I’ve been through much worse,” Korra snapped, and then spotted the red crate being loaded onto a truck. There were plenty of men guarding it, and any cop who broke from the formation to try reach it was shot down before they even got close. 

Jiren, the Monsoon boss, and two of his bodyguards (the firebender from the Agni Kai was nowhere to be seen) was using the fight as a distraction to escape, but Korra spotted him running to the water, maybe 60 yards away from her. She made to run after him, but then she felt a hand tugging on her wrist, and found none other than Hazukk holding her back. She wrenched her arm away from her. 

“What the hell do you think you're doing?!” Korra gave out. “The leader of the Red Monsoon is in our grasp and you’re holding me back? Are you fuckin' crazy?”

“Korra, please, think this through,” Hazukk said, despite Korra’s glare. “You’re probably the only one who can get to that delivery right now with your power. There will be more opportunities for Jiren to be apprehended in the future without a doubt, but after tonight, all that cocaine will be split up countless times, and near impossible to seize if we don’t get it now.”

“We?” Korra said, raising an eyebrow.

“The good guys,” Hazukk rephrased. “I’m a healer and a more than capable fighter. I want the city to be safe just as much as anyone here.”

Korra stopped and thought about this. Despite her belittling him for implying that he was helping so far, he actually had a good argument, and the way he said it all so confidently without stuttering was very persuasive. He was better at getting his point across than most councillors she’d been forced to listen to. His deep voice added a little bit of authority to it as well, ironically. She bit her bottom lip and looked him dead in the eye.

“You’re a good talker, I’ll give you that,” she said, and turned her attention to the truck, leaving Hazukk to wonder if she just complimented him. “Have you ever flown before?”

“Flown?” Hazukk repeated. “Well no-“

“Then hold on tight,” Korra replied, and grabbed Hazukk by the midriff, squeezing him. She would’ve been inclined to use fire to fly, but the extra passenger made that a bad option for a number of reasons. She frowned, annoyed at what her current capabilities meant she was going to have to do. It was meant as a last resort when fighting, and not as a 'booster-rocket' as Tenzin had to said all those years ago. The circumstances were very different, but at base level it was the same concept.

She closed her eyes, and connected with the power deep inside her. Raava's spirit flashed in her eyes, and a tornado picked her up, Hazukk squirming awkwardly like a puppy in her right arm as they rose higher and higher. The truck’s back doors snapped shut, and it sped off, flanked by four cars, two in front and two behind. Korra plus Hazukk flew over the fighting, a number of water and firebenders getting tangled up at the bottom of her tornado. 

She sped after the vehicles, but found herself struggling to keep pace. They were going 60 miles per hour, easily. She probably could’ve caught up with only the tornado if she was 100% fit, but she wasn’t nearly at that level. Hazukk’s weight was also something to contend with. He looked skinny enough but he was about Mako’s build, a few inches taller, and she wasn’t as strong as she used to be with all that sitting around in Republic City Hall. She put her free hand behind her and used fire to propel them even faster. The wind was forcing Korra to squint, such was their velocity.

Korra heard sirens behind her and saw cops speeding up to catch them. There were five cars, but as soon as she registered that, one spun and skidded into a shop, causing an explosion of flames. Screams were heard from bystanders but it seemed that shop was closed, so it removed the threat of civilian casualty. She couldn’t say the same for the cops though, sadly. Korra glanced down at the road and cursed. The two cars behind the truck had a couple of men freezing the road. She punched at car on the right, and an almighty whirlwind blew it onto its side. It flipped multiple times before landing upside down. 

“Fly lower!” Hazukk cried out, and Korra just about managed to duck under a billboard. She mumbled appreciation before dodging an ice shard. Two more police cars skidded out behind them, and that left two other cars, who were now right under the trailing Monsoon car's nose. One of the officers reached out the window and shot a cable at its tire, bursting it. It started to spin out, and then crashed into a bike rack, crumpling the rack, but being halted at the same time.

Korra made one last push and landed on the truck. She secured her and Hazukk’s feet to the top using metalbending. Korra spotted a fire hydrant in the distance, and closed her eyes, reaching out to the hydrant with both her mind and her hands. She felt the water pumping around below, even this far away, and ripped the metal off. The water sprung out and she tugged her arms in, then pointing her fingers at the car on her left. The waterbenders inside were helpless to do anything with barely any notice and were driven into ice, before their momentum tugged them out of the trap. They landed on their hood, all unconscious. Korra smiled, but that smile was immediately wiped off her face when one of the remaining police wagons crashed into her ice, and rendering it useless when smoke came out of the hood. Now they only had one car left, twisting and swerving through the streets to avoid losing the criminals.

“Block that turn using earthbending,” Hazukk shouted over the wind while pointing at a junction. Korra didn’t understand why but she did as he advised, and the cars, which had been slowing down for a sharp curve, sped up again. Korra found it nauseating, but ignored the sickness. They continued deeper into downtown, the buildings becoming more and more derelict from neglect after spirit vines had wrapped around them.

A man climbed up to the roof from the passenger side and slashed at them with a water whip. Hazukk caught the whip and ripped it out of the new guy's grasp. He tried to return the attack, but his whip just splashed back in his face. He would’ve taken a step back and probably would’ve fallen onto the road if he weren’t bolted in. The man created another whip with his second pouch, and started slashing at the both of them. Korra ripped open the roof directly in front of them as protection, curling it away from her, and then shoved Hazukk in after releasing his feet. He would be a handicap more than anything in this situation.

“Don’t get in the way!” she ordered.

She grabbed the top of the roof she had ripped off and used airbending to vault herself over. She flipped, and brought her heel crashing down, a column of fire accompanying it. The man jumped to his left, and the fire scorched the white roof black. Korra landed on her hunches and swept her foot 180° at him. A carpet of flames tried to knock him off his feet. He hopped over it, and in the same motion, licked Korra’s outstretched leg with his water-whip. Korra ground her teeth together, not letting a sound out. Get your head in the game, she thought, not allowing her temporary frustration to get the better of her.

One of the two cops in the last remaining police car shot out a wire which pierced the side of the truck, latching on. She prepared to climb out her window to help Korra, but it was sliced in a half by a waterbender from the other car. A large amount of water snaked out of the window, and the same waterbender splashed it onto the road behind them. Wasting no time, he froze it and then raised the ice into nearly a hundred three-inch-long spikes. The cops, having barely enough time to see it happen, drove right over the spikes. All four of their tires popped, and a block of ice was shot into one of their front wheels, connecting perfectly. The car turned and drove right into a tree, the police chase now over. They crawled out of the wreckage before it started to smoke, and fell down on the ground far enough away from the car to avoid any potential explosion.

“It’s up to the Avatar now,” the driver said.

Korra threw a heavy punch of air at her opponent, but accidentally put too much of her weight behind it. The waterbender rolled underneath her air-punch, stood up behind her and hosed the Avatar with whatever water he had left in her back. Korra stumbled forward and ripped off part of the wall that she had just erected not too long ago, coiling it around her waist and strapping herself into the thin sheet of iron that was like a wall. She had no time to rest though, as water shot from the car at her. All she could do was wave it away, while some was tossed to the waterbender on the roof with her, who collected it, having no water left in his snakeskins. He formed tentacles over his arms with the water, and reminded Korra of the old Red Lotus member. Her name was Ming How, or or something like that, and she proved how deadly it could be when used correctly.

Korra wildly flung her metal strapping at the waterbender, the volleys of water having stopped at least for the moment, and faced him, hands up. He easily shimmied out of the way and stood ready. They squared off, neither moving an inch. “Come on, Avatar,” he drawled. “Show me what you’ve got.”

Korra tried to say something witty, but couldn’t come up with anything, so she just brought her fist back for a large fire. She was going to blow him off the roof, but just as a few embers started to come out of her knuckles, he quenched it with his tentacle. He froze the tip around her hand, and flung Korra around into the side of the truck. She nearly fell onto the road, but dug her fingers into the truck. The Red Monsoon man peered over the side, careful not to lean too much, and pulled his tentacles to his eye-line. He melted the ice, curled both tips into hooks, and then froze them both. He flashed her a grin.

“You're a shit Avatar,” he said. “I think it’s about time that we get a new one.”

He raised his tips, ready to curl them into Korra. Korra twisted her hanging wrist secretly, moulding the metal around his feet as she had done earlier to herself and Hazukk. He didn’t notice.

“Can’t please everyone,” was her reply, and she screamed fire. The waterbender tried to step back, but cursed, now noticing his feet being locked in place. He used his tentacles as a shield to avoid being roasted alive, and Korra used this opportunity while still performing the dragon breath technique to wrench his footing from underneath him using metalbending. He flew off with the roof, surprised, but couldn’t do anything to stop himself from crashing into an old school. Korra wrapped the metal around him and dug it into the wall. He hung there, unconscious, hopefully for the police to find.

Korra climbed up the side, making sure every time she moved her foot or hand, the other three limbs were secure, her hair whipping back in the wind. She pulled herself up over and fell into the inside of the truck onto the container, half of the roof gone. She looked around, but couldn’t see Hazukk. It’s not that hard, just stay out of the way! she thought, ready to give him an ear-lashing when she found him. He’s probably gotten himself killed somehow. 

Just as that thought passed through her head, the truck hit a violent left. Korra was thrown across the top of the crate and into the other side. Her eyes widened as she got winded, hitting her shoulder awkwardly and dislocating it. She would’ve given some kind of yelp or something, but she had no breath to do so. She lay there for a moment as the truck wobbled dangerously, threatening to fall over, before it finally balanced itself out. She vomited, clutching her stomach.

“Why did I agree to this?” Korra muttered, then snapped out of her self-pity. She could cry later, but there was a group of people trying to kill her at that very moment, emphasized by an icicle flying overhead. 

She closed her eyes and touched her dislocated shoulder gingerly. All that time spent with Katara in the compound had drilled into her the human skeleton. She’d hated it back then and found it boring, but it was all necessary in becoming a healer. It was very relevant now. She moved her good arm behind her head, and reached for the dislocated shoulder. It popped back into the socket painfully in one swift movement, although she only let out a grunt. 

Another icicle crashed into the side of the truck and splintered, but with the full moon, Korra had no issue gathering the shards in mid-air and floating them over the side to her palm and melting them into an orb of water. She held the orb over her shoulder and it glowed a bright blue, soothing the pain, and after a few moments, it was a very dull ebb that she could ignore for the time-being.

Korra stood up and caught an icicle in her left hand, moulding it into a dense block. She faced the car, and punched a flamethrower with her right hand. It connected with their one of their front wheels, and blew it off completely. They began to swerve wildly, and the weight of the car tipped to where there was no wheel. She pelted the ice she had in her left hand at their windshield, smashing the glass and sending the driver’s vision into chaos. The car crashed into an old building, and Korra raised an eyebrow mockingly as the men crawled out of the car bleeding, becoming smaller and smaller as the seconds flew by.

“Now it’s time for the driver,” Korra said aloud to herself, and faced the front of the truck. But she found an old warehouse quickly approaching them, and the driver wasn’t slowing down. She noticed a hole right behind the passenger seat, and would’ve climbed through it, but she had no time for that. She ducked, and the vehicle drove through the wall. It shuddered, but the body of the truck withstood the impact.

Korra, who’d used airbending as a cushion when thrown forwards, jumped out and landed on her feet, hovering down. She walked up to the driver’s side, opened the door, and was taken by surprise. It was none other than Hazukk at the wheel, still gripping tightly onto the rubber. He hadn’t been thrown out the window, but the other man was, and lay in a heap across the warehouse, which was more like a large barn. And a very dark one too. She couldn’t see past a few metres in front of her.

“What was that about?” she asked, pulling him out of the seat and draping his arm over her shoulder. “And why couldn’t you just stay down there and not cause any harm? I had it under control!”

Hazukk pushed her away and stumbled on his feet before regaining his balance. Despite how rigid he’d been in the driver’s seat, he was actually moving perfectly fine. He didn’t answer the question though, just backing away from Korra.

“Well?” she asked.

“Eh, I, I, I...” Hazukk stuttered. 

Suddenly a current of water came out of nowhere and hosed Hazukk in the side. He flew off into the darkness, and Korra couldn’t help him as she had to redirect another one flying at her. She followed it up with a fireball, which briefly lit up the enclosure. She spotted five different faces in that brief moment.

“Of all the places you could’ve drove into,” Korra noted loudly. She didn’t hear any signs of resistance from Hazukk. He could’ve at least put up some kind of fight. Never again, she thought.

She ripped some metal from the truck and wrapped it around her upper body, creating a makeshift chest-plate, like Su Beifong had taught her to. She punched the ground in front of her, and it rumbled, cracks forming and a line of rocks erupting out in front of her at the waterbenders. It stopped halfway there though. She frowned. How could the Red Monsoon-

She cried out in surprise as she was catapulted into the blackness above from the ground underneath her. She flailed around helplessly for a moment, and then her airbending training kicked in. She thrust her hands out and blew downwards at what she thought was the ground. It almost worked perfectly, but when she blew at the ground she was pointing a little diagonally, at an angle, so she landed awkwardly. It wasn’t anything serious, though. 

She jumped up just in time to wave away a fireball coming at her, but she was too slow to avoid a brick clipping her across the back. She nearly fell to her knees, but resisted the temptation to do so. More attacks started flying at her, all three elements. Pebbles mixed in a volley of water, flamethrowers, blocks of earth, from all directions nonetheless. She soon realised that she couldn’t stop them all as the odd volley of water crashed into her shins, the flamethrowers singing her when she didn’t react in time, blocks of earth banging on the door of shattering her chest-plate. She started bleeding in quite a few places. They were mainly just nicks, but still bleeding, despite her two layers of clothing. She lashed out wildly with fire and air, but she couldn’t tell if she was making any connections apart from the odd 'oof' or 'agh'. 

She used airbending to blow her shoes off of her feet. She sent them flying into the abyss. As she did this, she unleashed a large helicopter kick of fire around her. She used the opportunity to tear off her socks, leaving her barefoot. Her heels landed on the ground first, and she felt the vibrations from around her. She gasped, realising there were thirty other people there apart from herself and Hazukk, the latter of which was slumped over by a wall, still breathing thankfully. 

The other figures in the room were approaching on her slowly, firing away all the time. She countered them all, but they were making steady progress. I don’t have any choice. This is a last resort, she reasoned. She reached down for the third time in the space of an hour, and Raava roared up in her. Her eyes emitted the heavenly light and a sphere of air exploded from around her. All of her enemies, who she couldn’t see for the most part, were blown off their feet away from her. The chest-plate broke into pieces as she unleashed her chi, and she began to rise up in a tornado. Shouts of terror were heard and she was about to blast them with another wave when suddenly, the flow of power choked. She stopped for a moment, and her tornado nearly unravelled. The power wouldn’t come to her cleanly, and she lowered herself to the ground. The onlookers didn’t dare attack, afraid of a retaliation.

Then, as the power faltered, it shut off completely. Korra blinked, and tried to bring it back, but it was like when Zaheer had poisoned her. It was as if it wasn’t there. No. It was there, but it was struggling. Maybe it was her illness. She’d never tried to activate the Avatar State before while unwell, and maybe this was why she’d always steered away from the idea of it. She had to get it checked out now. This was serious.

“What are you waiting for?” a familiar voice shrieked. “Get her!” Tokuga. But what was he doing here? There hadn’t been any Triple Threats at the delivery, although she had plenty for company now. How did they-

Korra was interrupted mid-thought for the second time in a few minutes as a flurry of attacks rushed to end her. She raised an earth tent around herself, and used it to buy a breath. A hole broke through one of the walls as she came up with an idea. She drove both fists into the ground. A circular crack appeared in the ground five metres around her tent. The hoard stopped, wary if what was coming next.

“What’s the issue?” Tokuga screamed. “She’s hiding because we have her cornered! Kill her!”

But right as Tokuga finished his command, a loud rumble was heard, and the crack lit up. Everyone backed away as lava bubbled up from the circle and began to overflow. The Triple Threats hastily retreated, tripping over each other in their haste. Korra’s tent exploded into shrapnel and she emerged, determined, angry. She then remembered how the Red Monsoon member had used water tentacles against her before. That gave her an idea.

Korra erected eight thick tendrils of lava, adapting the octopus technique from waterbending into lavabending. Her eyes darted around, daring anyone to challenge her as they backed away. 

“Are you deaf?” Tokuga shrieked, somewhere behind the crowd. “Get her, now!”

His lackeys obliged and soon started attacking her again, but Korra swirled the tentacles around her, absorbing every attack and lobbing blobs of lava right in front of the gangsters, ushering them away.

“Stay away if you know what’s good for you!” she warned.

“Of course you have to leave it up to the nonbender. I’ll do it myself!” Tokuga declared, and raced out of the crowd towards Korra. She tried to scare him off him by throwing lava right beside him, but he wasn’t faltered by one.

Damnit, Korra thought, and stomped her foot. A small rock rose out of the ground and Tokuga tumbled right in front of her perimeter of lava. He rose his head and they met eyes. Korra hesitated, reluctant to kill someone even like Tokuga. And in that moment, she showed him mercy.

“I knew it,” he growled, and threw a small object at her. She couldn’t tell what it was, but it clunked off her head, and she fell to her knees, clutching her now bleeding forehead. The lava tendrils fell and Tokuga scrambled out of the splashes' range. “Grab her, waterbenders!”

A sliver of water grabbed Korra by the neck and threw her out of her protective circle. She landed on an earthbender, whelping, and rolled over. They all parted, and Korra watched out of the corner of her eye as Tokuga raced towards her, shouting something incoherent. He was intent on one thing only though. He had been waiting for this moment, and he wasn’t bothered about having a long triumphant speech.

“No!” Korra shouted, and held out her hands, willing him to stop. But when she opened her eyes, he had. In fact, he had stopped entirely. He stood there, unable to move.

Korra looked around. Everyone was just standing still, as if they were frozen in time. She opened her mouth as if to ask why, then shuddered at the realisation of what she was performing.

Bloodbending. A crime punishable by life in prison after the Equalist Movement. She’d done it accidentally a few weeks ago, and had let go after just a moment. She had involuntarily reached out to everyone in the large enclosure, but she only tightened her grip this time. She grinded her teeth together and stared the half-spirit in the eye once more. This time, she wasn’t feeling as compassionate. Korra raised the blood in every single body in the room to their head. One by one, they all fainted, with Tokuga lasting the longest. She pulled him towards her, until they were almost touching noses.

“Consider this your final warning,” Korra said quietly. “The next time we meet, I won’t hesitate to end you.” 

Then she forced the blood up even more, and Tokuga gave up with a moan. His body fell to the floor. Korra collapsed onto her hands, exhausted.

Hazukk silently watched all of this in the background cunningly. He’d just caught the Avatar committing a heinous act. Bloodbending. Oh, how he could write an article about that if he could prove it. He smiled as she unknowingly rendered him unconscious along with all the others.

So what did you think about that one? I definitely enjoyed writing it. So, if feel like it RR! Thanks a million for reading. I've got the entire storyline planned out now, so if you spot any plot holes, I'd greatly appreciate it if you point them out. Unreal to see I got over a hundred hits in under a month too! Have a great day!


	9. Chapter 9

So the next two chapters were meant to be one, but got to 6k words long, which is a bit much for one chapter. Any feedback, negative or positive, is greatly appreciated! Also, thank you so much for 150 hits! Enjoy

Korra moaned, and opened her eyes. Sunlight snuck threw the tiny gap in the curtains and wouldn’t let her stay go back to sleep. She rolled over, showing her back to the window, and put an arm around Asami. Or not. Even though she was a busy woman, Asami wasn’t an early bird, and Korra always enjoyed snuggling with her in the morning, but she wasn’t there today. The giant bed didn’t go down too bad in general, but Korra found herself restless as she twisted and turned, trying to get comfy. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes again and gazed at the clock on the wall opposite their bed. It read 11:24. That would explain it. Asami had probably gotten up around nine or ten at the latest.

“Wow, I slept in,” Korra murmured to herself, and sat up groggily. She rubbed her arms, wincing at the sight of a couple of her scars. She’d been cut up pretty badly, but it was nothing serious, and the medics had given her minimal treatment. She’d only gotten home at three in the morning, due to all the issues with rounding everyone up. From what she heard, two cops were in critical condition from the chase and several more had been severely injured. Most of the Red Monsoon members had gotten away unfortunately, but rumour had it that Kenichi Shinoda had been brought down, although for safety reasons, the hero was anonymous. The police seized all the cocaine, and even though Hazukk had been a little off, it was still in the region of six million yuans' worth. 

She planned on visiting Mako later. He’d been badly messed up when she last saw him, which was on a trolley. She still felt awkward around him, but it seemed he didn’t remember what had happened thankfully, and there was nothing wrong with visiting one of her best friends who she’d known for four and a half years.

On the bright side, the Agni Kai Triad were crippled as a gang. Most of their goons had been arrested the night before, and if their leader really was gone, that meant that everything would probably go to shit for a good while. Or maybe another Tokuga would emerge. Hopefully not. 

Korra stood up and threw on a dressing gown, heading downstairs for breakfast. As she walked, she found her legs barely able to support her weight. She made her way to the dining hall and found her favourite breakfast waiting for her; toast, boiled eggs and porridge with honey. One of the perks of having a rich girlfriend was having whatever you wanted whenever you wanted.

She sank into the seat and dug into her food. As she reminisced over the events of the past night, she frowned at what she’d done to Tokuga, trying to justify it. Sure, he was about to murder her mere seconds after she’d shown him mercy, but she had consciously just bloodbent someone, even if that someone wasn’t exactly perfect. Republic City needed no help in reminding itself of the last bloodbender. After Amon, or Noatok (that name just didn’t suit him at all) was exposed, the Equalist Movement lost all support, and he disappeared along with Tarrlok. Nonbenders had been played fools the entire time and benders obviously didn’t like him. He could still be at large for all she knew, but he wasn’t an immediate concern. But the stigma around bloodbending was palpable now.

After she’d defeated the Triple Threats, Korra had been barely able to move The police tracked her down, following the path of destruction blazed by her and the Red Monsoon. She’d woken up Hazukk, who was in very good condition for someone who had been beaten unconscious, and he wasted no time in writing an article. A wagon from the Sun had literally picked him up right after the police arrived.

She thought about Hazukk. He was officially the worst fighter ever, despite him being 'more than capable'. How he had ever made probending standard, she didn’t know. She regretted bringing him, a waterbender, along for the chase during the full moon, somehow. She knew that they had also been facing waterbenders but he’d only gotten in the way. The only good thing he’d done was tip them off, which was pretty important to be fair, but she downright refused to believe that Mako had been saved by him. He’d even managed to drive the truck into a Triple Threat hideout by chance. How did he manage that?!

Korra chewed on her food, but none of it tasted nice. She frowned, munching and forcefully swallowing it. Come to think of it, it had been like that for a little while now. She couldn't pinpoint when it had started, but it was long enough now. She stood up, no longer hungry, and suddenly her stomach lurched. She bent over, using the table to support her weight. She tried to take a deep breath, but now she was panting, bile rising her throat. She rushed to the bathroom just down the hallway, but didn’t make it in time. She threw up all over the lovely, expensive carpet. A servant, who’d been wandering by, sprinted over to her, putting a hand on her back.

“Korra, do you need anything?” he asked. Spending so much time in City Hall had made Korra resent formalities, so much so that she had told all the servants to just call her by her first name, unlike Asami, who was 'Ms Sato.’ They didn’t ask questions, thankfully. 

“I’m really, really sick,” she replied, trying to stop the vomit but failing miserably. The servant helped her up, and practically carried her to the bathroom. She retched and threw up some more there for about ten minutes before finally wiping her mouth and standing up. The servant offered her a towel and she wiped all the sweat off of her face.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, shaking her head.

“Anything for the partner of Ms Sato,” was the gracious response, and Korra marvelled at how patient these people were. They had never snapped at her in the four months she’d been living there, and hadn’t spilled the word when she and Asami had first gotten together and tried to keep it a secret because of the attention they had both got with Mako. It had been confirmed out by a nosey journalist after a month and a half, but all of them had kept their mouths shut up until that point, true professionals.

“Do you think you could drive me to the hospital?” she asked. “This has been going on for a while now, and I'm not in great shape, as you can tell. I’d really appreciate it.”

“Of course,” the servant said. “You shouldn’t think of it as asking favours of me, it’s my job. I’ll have a car prepared in ten minutes. Do you need a female servant to help you up the stairs or get dressed?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” Korra replied, and walked out the bathroom. She would’ve bent the vomit on the carpet into the toilet or something to save the servants the trouble of cleaning up her mess, but even that was too much effort.

“One more question if you may, Mast-“ he started, then caught himself. “If you may, Korra,” he corrected.

“Yes?” she asked, turning her head.

“Should I inform Ms Sato of your current health, or do you wish to keep it private?” 

Korra thought about this for a second. Technically, Asami already knew but Korra didn’t want to worry her any more than was necessary. “No, it’s probably not worth her time, whatever it is.”

“As you wish,” he responded with a bow, and hurried off to get keys.

Korra waited nervously outside Dr Xavi’s office. She had been there for 42 minutes but thankfully no-one there in front of her was seriously bad. Finally, Dr Xavi opened the door and gestured for Korra to come in. She slowly rose of her seat and fiddled with her hair on the short walk to his office. When she sat down in front of his desk, he clasped his hands and started the conversation;

“So why are you here, Korra?” he asked. “Did you sustain any physical injury that you think might need surgery? Or is it a health problem?”

“Well, it’s-“ Korra started, then stopped. “Actually, now that you mention it, I did get cut up pretty badly in a fight last night, and my right shoulder got dislocated temporarily, but that’s not important. I have a different reason why I came here.”

“It’s not?” he replied. “It sounds serious enough. I think it’s for the best that we just take a quick look at that. Could you remove your waistcoat, please?”

Korra began to object, but then shut her mouth, figuring she may as well kill two birds with one stone. He checked her arms, frowning at the scars and then also had a look at her legs, but although they all looked nasty, they’d heal themselves. Next, he checked her shoulder. It was a little bruised, but he shook it a little bit, twisted it gently, and judged it to be fine. 

“Now that we got that looked at,” he said, satisfied with his examination, “what was your more pressing issue?”

“It’s, em, it’s been making me feel really sick,” Korra started, then mentally slapped her palm on her forehead. “What I meant to say was that I’ve been sick for a few weeks, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to go away.”

“Mhmm hmm,” Dr Xavi said. “And when can you pinpoint it starting exactly? What day or night, if you can remember any particular event where you may have caught a virus? And what are the symptoms you feel would best describe your predicament?”

Korra pushed the one answer that was screaming at her in her head away, despite the fact that Dr Xavi was very professional and didn’t even tell his wife about his patients. 

“I can’t think of when I woke up and thought I was very sick, it just kind of happened gradually,” she lied. “As for symptoms… I’ve been getting really bad mood swings recently even when nothing happens to put me in a bad mood, and none of the food I normally like tastes nice to me. I’ve been eating very healthy for the last week in particular, but all my energy gets sapped even when I’ve just got out of bed, and my stomach feels like it’s about to explode.” She hesitated for a moment, before continuing. “I’ve also missed my period.”

“I see,” Dr Xavi said. “Is there anything you’d like to add? Something you may think is unrelated may also be a major symptom.”

“Bending takes so much more out of me than it did before, and during the full moon two weeks ago, I couldn’t control myself and lashed water at everything around me. To add to that,” she said, more quietly this time, embarrassed by the next part, “the Avatar State just switched off on me in the middle of a fight. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. It activated, then started stuttering almost, then stopped altogether.”

Dr Xavi took this all in for a minute. He then said: “I’m afraid that I will be no help to you in terms of your current problem regarding the Avatar State. You may need a therapist or monk for that. But the other symptoms you were talking about… They sound very identifiable to me, and I have an idea in my head of what you have.”

“Really?” Korra asked, perking up. “What is it?” 

“I’d rather not give you false information, so it’s best that run a few tests on you first. First, I’ll need a blood test. If you could hold out your arm that didn’t get injured, please. Just to avoid any unnecessary movement.”

Korra obliged and held out her left arm. He slid a syringe into an uncut part of Korra’s arm and extracted a tiny amount of blood, before smothering it with a small cloth and putting a plaster over it. “If bending really takes that much out of you, then I think that a plaster will do you no harm rather than heal it yourself. You’ll have to put bandages on your arms and legs regardless.” Korra nodded, and Dr Xavi walked away to another room. Korra sat there absentmindedly, ignoring the sharp, unpredictable pains in her stomach. Dr Xavi came back after a few minutes, and Korra sat up, expecting an answer, but only got another question.

“Sorry, but I’m afraid I need a urine sample.”

Korra blinked, taking a second to register his request and hide her disappointment of not having an answer, and walked feebly to the small toilet, still very weak, where she found a small basin. She returned after five minutes, and Dr Xavi took the basin wordlessly and headed off to the other room. When he returned, he sat down and looked at her with a neutral expression, and had piece of paper in his hands. Korra twiddled her thumbs underneath the desk, anticipating something bad. But she never would’ve predicted the answer she got.

“Korra, if I am correct, you’re in a relationship with another woman?”

“Yes, I am,” Korra challenged, ready for an argument.

“That’s completely fine,” he reassured her. “What stage of your relationship are you both at?”

Korra pursed her lips, wary of why he would care, but then answered truthfully: “Well, we just moved in together a couple of months ago. We're just taking it slow, we haven’t had much time together because of our schedules.”

“I understand. In that case, I don’t know how this is going to affect you both, but the tests have both resulted positive,” he said, and then dropped the bomb. “You’re pregnant.”

“What-wha-what do you mean I’m pregnant?” Korra asked, her anxiety rising. She wanted him to burst open a smile and laugh at her for being so gullible, but he didn’t. He kept the same neutral expression.

“It’s not my business to go probing around your personal life,” he said. “But do you know who the father is?” 

Korra only stared at him, her eyes watering, the realisation slowly setting in. She was pregnant. She had a child growing inside her womb. She trembled, and Dr Xavi pressed the prescription into her hands, which were now above the desk. He closed her fingers around it.

“I need to talk to you about your prescription,” he continued, ignoring the fact that she didn’t respond. It is not safe for the baby if pregnant woman bends any respective elem-“

“LIAR!” she screamed. She stood up and stumbled to the door, tears streaming down her face. She spotted Chief Beifong walking down the corridor in her direction, the sunlight glaring off her armour. Beifong walked up to Korra, who now had a hand on the wall.

“Korra, I was just going to visit Mako,” she started but then stopped and raised an eyebrow, visibly confused. 

Korra, on the other hand, froze. I should tell Mako, she thought. He has a right to know as the father.

Dr Xavi appeared in the hallway. “Korra, please, we need to discuss-“

“Get away from me!” she snarled, and tried to blast him with a wave of air, but a feeble gust only made him blink. She tried to run to the stairs to the outdoors, but suddenly lost all her energy, as was the trend recently with her. She had an explanation for it now though.

“Korra!” the servant who had driven her there called out. He had waited patiently up there with her, and brushed off her current outburst of emotion. He caught her in his arms as she fainted, the prescription sheet falling to the ground. He glanced at it, and couldn’t help but catch what the first line read.

PREGNANCY: POSITIVE

His jaw dropped, but then he shut it. Whatever might happen in the future, he wasn’t going to interfere unless necessary in his employer's personal life. It still shocked him, but he picked up the paper and put it in Korra's pocket. Dr Xavi walked over to them and sighed.

“I assume you’re with Korra?” The servant nodded. “Everything she needs to know is on that piece of paper. Make sure that she reads it when she’s accepted what I’ve told her.”

“I’ll take her back to the mansion,” he replied, memorising what he’d just been told.

“Wait, who are you? What’s your name?” Beifong interrupted. “We can’t just let anyone take the Avatar.”

“My name is Theo Guivante. I’m a servant at the Sato Mansion,” he answered politely, gesturing to his uniform.

Lin Beifong stared at him, etching his face in her memory. “If I weren’t up to my eyes at the minute, I’d send an escort with you. I’ll remember your face, and she goes missing, I’ll hold you responsible, Theo.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from our chief of police,” he assured her with a passive-aggressive smile. She harrumphed, then turned on her heel and kept on walking to her destination. Theo draped Korra’s hand across his shoulder and carried her down to the car, brooding over what he had just seen written on the piece of paper.

I guess it's been pretty obvious up until this point, but now the secret is out! If these notes at the beginning and end of chapters are annoying, tell me please. Thanks for reading otherwise


	10. Chapter 10

**Will be posting another chapter on the 21st of July for the anniversary of Makoto Iwamatsu, voice actor of Uncle Iroh. I've just realised that I'll probably be writing more like 45-50 chapters. Hope you enjoy!**

Mako lay silently in his bed in the ward, listening to the groans of a couple of cops who had been worse off than him. He wasn’t concussed somehow, but his body was a stiff as a rock. Everything hurt, apart from his legs, which were just a little scraped. But the bandage starting from the bottom of his abs all the way up to just underneath his shoulders was no joke. He’d managed to ignore it for the duration of the fight, but the cut inflicted on him was deep enough, and he had also broken a few ribs. The serious gashes on the back of his head and the front of his body were very susceptible to being reopened, so he lay there still, only his thoughts for company.

He’d done it. He’d really done it. He had finally avenged his parents' murder. Sure, Shinoda hadn’t physically gone there and killed them himself, but it was his orders, or _policy_ as the Agni Kai had phrased it, that indirectly killed them, and certainly orphaned many other children too. His reign of terror was over, Mako had seen the hole itself. There was nothing a healer could do to replace a blown-out heart. So why didn’t he feel satisfied?

“Agh!” Mako groaned as he shifted slightly. He was in way too fragile a position to not be relaxing and recovering, adjusting his head in the movement as well. Another bandage was on his head, going over his left eye, which was for the head cut. He closed the only eye that he could open and shut out the sounds of the ward, trying to get a little bit more sleep. He’d woken up several times during the night from turning his sleep and aggravating the wound.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Beifong walked through the door. Mako could tell purely by the sound of her footsteps, she was a tiny bit lighter than most cops and her armour jingled slightly differently. She also just had an aura about her, the way she entered a room so confidently and sure of herself. He peeped open his eyelid a crack, and saw her going around to each of the officers, praising them for their work. She didn’t try to comfort them because she was pretty bad at being therapeutic, but her giving credit was something that people genuinely appreciated. It wasn’t that she was a cold person (not as much anymore anyway), she just said it as it was. She reached Mako's bed last, and stood over to his side. He tilted his head as much as it would go without the pain flaring up again.

“I’ve heard what you did,” Beifong said. “You don’t realise how important your actions were last night. If Kenichi Shinoda had started running around again, only the spirits know how bad things could’ve got.”

“He had it coming,” Mako grunted.

“I know that you’re not in great shape,” Beifong said, getting straight to business, “but I need to hear your side of the story.”

“Look, I know it’s not my place, but…” Mako started, struggling for the right words. “I'm really not in the mood for talking right now.” Beifong blinked, had a double take and put on a stern expression.

“Mako, as a commander, you will listen to me,” Beifong said firmly. She looked at him, her face emotionless. She waited, and Mako remained silent. “Well?”

“Fine,” Mako sighed, and began to tell her about what had happened. He started with the waterbender, 'Ruk, and explained how ‘Ruk had cut him up pretty badly, before Mako smashed his head into a crate. He didn’t spare Beifong any of the details, and when he finished that part, she nodded silently, then said;

“I haven’t heard of that type of joint operation bodyguard in years.”

Mako hummed an agreement, and then continued. He didn’t stutter when he talked about how his decision to eliminate the two remaining bodyguards, and Beifong didn’t interrupt. He went through everything in terms of the fight with Shinoda, and how badly the street got messed up. He took partial blame for this, as he could’ve stopped them from getting so far earlier, in his opinion, but he didn’t sweat it. Then he got to the part where he was cornered against Shinoda when running away.

“I don’t know why he didn’t try to incinerate me then,” Mako said. “I think he let his temper get the better of him, and he wanted to blow me out of existence.”

“There have been reports in the past of how he can go overboard when you anger him,” Beifong backed Mako up. “He probably wasn’t in his right mind, given how he was talking about his past.”

“Yeah, I was a bit confused by that,” Mako said. “Anyway, I realised that I couldn’t redirect it if he let it loose from his fingers at that distance, so I just kinda lunged and grabbed his wrist. It flowed through my body and I just poured everything back at him in one huge shot.”

“Would that have anything to do with the gaping hole in his chest?” Beifong quizzed.

“I did that,” Mako said, and then felt the sudden urge to let everyone know, as confirmation. “I did that! I killed Kenichi Shinoda!”

“Quiet!” Beifong hissed. “Do you realise what you’ve just done?”

“He was responsible for my parents' deaths!” Mako challenged back, returning her glare. He heard a couple of cheers and looked around to see everyone who could was clapping and congratulating him.

“Yeah!”

“Bastard had it coming!”

“Drinks on me when we get out!”

“Everyone, shut the fuck up!” Beifong shouted, and the ward went still, the regular beep of the machines the only thing penetrating the atmosphere. She turned her face back to Mako. “Do you understand what the repercussions of this are? If word gets out that you brought Shinoda down, every Agni Kai in the city will be out for you!”

“I’ll kill every last one of them!” Mako declared, and Beifong ground her teeth together, hitting the bedside table to her left. 

“Listen up, everyone!” she announced, turning around. “There will be severe consequences for ANYONE who spreads the fact that of what Mako just said. This is classified information and will be treated as such for the time being. I’ll know if you do,” she added, then turned back to Mako. “Given the knock on the back of your head, you’re clearly not in your right mind! We’ll continue our conversation at a later point.”

With that, Beifong stormed out of the ward. Mako lay his head back down and took a deep breath. He’d probably just fucked up majorly there, but he didn’t care. His head sunk into the soft pillow and closed his eye. The ward was still dead quiet.

***

Mako fell asleep again, and didn’t wake up until late in the afternoon. He groaned, his body restless from all the extra rest. He sat up without too much difficulty, and shifted his legs to the side of the bed. He felt like going to the toilet, but then Hazukk walked in. Mako rubbed his eye and smiled. Hazukk returned it, and sat on the bed beside Mako.

“Hi Mako! You don’t look too great,” he commented. “It seems that you got hurt pretty bad.”

“You can say that again,” Mako agreed. “I’m barely able to move at the minute. I got cut up by a crazy waterbender. What’s the visit for?”

“Just popped by, wanted to see if you were doing ok and if you needed anything,” Hazukk said graciously, taking Mako back. He was being very nice, maybe a more considerate side to him than he had ever shown before coming out.

“Wow, thanks,” he said stupidly. He tried to show gratitude, but his head was all over the place. If he stood up, there was a good chance he wouldn’t be able to keep his balance, so coherent thought wasn’t coming as easy as he would’ve liked.

“Think nothing of it,” Hazukk said. “Is it true? Were you really the one to do it?”

“Do what?” Mako asked cautiously, even though he knew exactly what Hazukk was implying.

“Shinoda,” Hazukk whispered. “Did you really bring him down?” 

“How do you know that?” Mako hissed. He wasn’t sure how he should be reacting. Beifong had told him personally not to go sharing it with anyone, but here was a journalist who, no matter how much they had bonded over the last few weeks was still a journalist, had come in and asked Mako directly for confirmation.

“It’s the word going around the Sun,” Hazukk said, “and judging by your response, I’d hazard a guess that I’m correct.”

Mako cursed silently. He wasn’t ashamed of what he had done, but for some reason, when he expected to feel pride, he just felt empty. On a more concerning issue, Beifong's advice from earlier had properly penetrated now. He was most likely #1 target for the Agni Kais now, if they heard it was him. They probably wouldn’t even ask for proof, they’d just show up at his door. 

_I can take them all_ , he thought, refusing to be negative. “Fine, you got me. But please don’t go telling everyone at the Sun. It’s still technically classified.”

Hazukk appeared to brood over this for a minute, then nodded. Mako let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s good to have a journo I can trust,” he said.

“I’m just trying to serve everyone the best I can,” Hazukk said, seemingly dismayed, but his expression changed to a happier one a few moments later. “I nearly forgot to mention, the article has sold like hotcakes. It’s my most popular story yet!”

“Article?” Mako repeated, then remembered the whole reason Hazukk had come on the raid for. “How did you get one out so quickly? It's only the afternoon.”

“Better to write with a fresh memory, and we persuaded an officer to give us an exclusive early report. You’re going to love it!”

“That’s… great to hear, Hazukk!” he said, happy for his former teammate.

Mako and Hazukk chatted for another while. Hazukk asked about how Mako had taken down Kenichi Shinoda on his own, and Mako was forced to answer him, although he altered it slightly to say that he blew the car up before they got in, and dealt with the two bodyguards easy enough without killing them. Hazukk listened carefully, and only offered encouragement or sympathy when needed, which was really what Mako needed, given how he was still coming to grips with the fact that he had just murdered someone, even if that someone was Kenichi Shinoda. After about forty-five minutes, Hazukk's smile disappeared from his face.

“I have to leave now, busy schedule,” he explained, “but before I go, there’s something you need to hear.” He leaned in closer, and stared at Mako the eyes, dead serious. Mako, who had been cheerful a few seconds ago, wiped his smile off of his face and showed that he was paying full attention.

“Is it bad? Did one of the Triads break out already?”

“They haven’t broken out,” Hazukk started, “but what’s really troubling is how they're all claiming Avatar Korra defeated them so comprehensively.” Hazukk's eyes darted around the room, searching for any eavesdroppers. When he was satisfied that no-one could hear them, he whispered; “They say that she used _bloodbending_ to render them unconscious.”

“WHAT?!” Mako nearly shouted. “That’s absurd! She was never taught how to do that, and knows first-hand how horrible it is! The results of Amon bloodbending her nearly drove her to kill herself! Don’t make up lies like that!”

“Mako, I’m only telling you this because it concerns you greatly. All of the truth see-ers have said that they’re not lying. I would keep an eye on her during the full moon if I were you. Don’t worry, I don’t intend on letting anyone in the media hear about this.” With that final comment, Hazukk stood up and left a stunned Mako to contemplate what he had just heard. 

_Why would I trust him over Korra?_ he thought _. But his tip about the shipment was a goldmine. And I haven’t even brought it up to her yet. Please don’t let this be real._

What Mako overlooked in his desperation to deny this was how Hazukk had gotten information on the interrogation of the Triple Threats. Hazukk smiled to himself as he made his way out of the hallway to the stairs. An anonymous tip was in order. 

As he turned the corner, a bulky young man raced by in the direction Hazukk had come from, barely avoiding him, and Hazukk swore he looked familiar. _Oh well, it’s probably just nothing_ , he thought, and continued on his way.

Bolin crashed into the ward, startling Mako and all the other occupants. He looked around desperately, then raced over to Mako as soon as he saw his older brother. Mako was about to greet him with a 'hello' but Bolin crushed him with a hug.

“I came as soon as I heard,” Bolin said, relieved that Mako was okay.

“Ribs!” Mako wheezed, and Bolin released his bear grip on the older sibling. He took a moment to catch his breath, and then returned a smile to Bolin, who was breathing heavier than Mako out of worry, somehow.

“What happened?” Bolin asked, grabbing the chair beside the bed and sitting down on it. “You look messed up.” 

“I got him,” Mako said, grinning, even though the happiness hadn’t really sunk in yet. He was having second thoughts about telling people but everyone in the ward already knew, and if anyone else had a right to know, it was Bolin.

“Did what? Act all tough then get beaten up?” joked Bolin. 

“No, I _got_ him. Kenichi Shinoda, leader of the Agni Kai’s, the person responsible for mom and dads' deaths!” Bolin paled back a bit at the sound of their parents' deaths, but then his face lit up as he realised what Mako meant.

“You caught him?” Bolin asked ecstatically, grabbing Mako’s shoulders and shaking him.

“Even better,” Mako said, ignoring the pain flaring up in his ribs from the movement. “I put an end to that sick bastard’s excuse of a life.”

Bolin kept on smiling, then it dimmed slightly as he took in Mako’s words. “Say again?” he asked.

“He’s dead, I killed him myself,” Mako said louder and clearer. “He’ll never be able to hurt anyone else ever again!”

“Wow… that’s, that’s, great news!” Bolin replied with fake enthusiasm, letting go of Mako’s shoulders, but Mako saw through it in an instant; The way Bolin half-heartedly emphasised 'great' wouldn’t fool a dog.

“What’s the matter?” Mako asked. “This is great, yet you've just gotten all quiet.”

“It’s… well,” Bolin started, trying to find the right words. “You really _killed_ him? Straight up, there’s no chance he survived?” Mako mistook Bolin's hesitation for doubt on whether the job was really done.

“Yeah!” he stated. “I blew a hole right through his damn heart. He was using blue flames and everything! There’s no way it could’ve been anyone else!”

“I just…” Bolin said, then stopped altogether, his eyes staring at the ground.

“Spit it out!” Mako said, beginning to get irritated by Bolin’s sombre reaction. He should have been overjoyed, not at all sad in the slightest.

“It’s just that…” Bolin continued. “It’s just that I never imagined you _murdering_ somebody, even a man like Kenichi Shinoda. Couldn’t you just have detained him?”

“Detained him? Are you nuts?” Mako said, now angry. “I’ve avenged mom and dad. You and me have been waiting for this moment for over thirteen years now, for crying out loud!” Then Mako’s expression turned dead cold and locked onto Bolin, who lifted his head and returned the look uneasily. “Are you about to defend him?”

“What, no, that’s stupid!” Bolin answered, offended, his voice rising, and stood up. “Why would I ever do that?! I was there with you with when it happened, I was holding onto you for dear life!”

“You aren’t happy, evidently, why aren’t you happy?!” Mako cried, rising to meet Bolin eye-to-eye despite the pain flaring up again.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right! Why did you have to kill him? Mum and dad wouldn’t have wanted to you to kill him. You’re a commander now, you have authority to arrest whoever you want!” Bolin argued.

“What’s gotten into you? I left that waterbender from the Red Lotus in the mountain near the Northern Air Temple when it was caved it with lava,” Mako reminded him. “I told you that then and you had no problem with it!”

“That guy was committing suicide, we barely got out ourselves!” Bolin said, now shouting. He stepped forward and met Mako’s glare with his own anger. “That doesn’t make it ok. You’re just as bad as the firebender that killed mom and dad! You’re proud of the fact that you took another person’s life! You’re not that low, Mako!”

Mako’s heart skipped a beat. 

_He didn’t just compare me to him, did he?_ Mako tried to not to believe his ears, but he had always been a realist. He couldn’t open his mouth. Bolin and him had had numerous fights over the years, but it had never, ever gotten this personal. Bolin realised what he had said, and tried to take it back.

“Wait, no, Mako, I didn’t mean that,” he mumbled, fiddling with the fabric of his trousers. Mako sucked his lips in behind his teeth, and took a deep breath.

Then he slugged Bolin on the jaw. Bolin let out a gasp and fell on his ass. Bolin looked up at Mako, who was vehement, furious, outraged, betrayed, glowering at his best friend.

“Don’t.” Mako growled, “You. Dare. Compare. Me. To. Him. Ever.”

“Please Mako-“

“GET THE FUCK OUT!” Mako roared, and Bolin scrambled away from him, nursing his bruised jaw and tears starting to form in his eyes, and didn’t even bother shutting the door as he ran away, crying. Mako glanced around at the rest of the ward, scaring off anyone who tried looking at him back.

“Bastard deserved it,” Mako stated loudly, and flopped back onto his bed, tired. He shut his eyes and tried to think over what he had just done. 

_Did I overreact? No._

**Start of the main plot starting to get off the tracks! Hope you enjoyed! R &R!**


	11. Fruitless

**RIP Mako Iwamatsu. 15th anniversary of his death. Gone but never forgotten**

Mako waited silently in the old rundown shop. The time was somewhere between 11 to half 11 at night. Hazukk had produced another tip, although he wouldn’t be coming along on this operation. There was supposedly going to be a raid on Paiodou Street, one of the busiest streets in Republic City, well known for its shops affiliated with huge brands. Quang's Jewellery, Future Industries and Lim Yao's (a huge clothes brand for all types of budgets) were just a few of the names there among many. If even a slightly reputable source tipped that there was going to be a raid there, the police quite simply had to listen to it. There were 17 other officers on standby, waiting to pounce at a moment’s notice.

It had been three weeks since Mako’s fight with Bolin. Mako hadn’t spoken to him since, and although he had been visited by Asami, Korra had been too busy to visit apparently, Asami saying that she hadn’t been spending too much time with Korra either. His ribs hadn’t been knocked out of place too much during the fight with Shinoda, so when healing water was applied, they healed in just over two weeks, which was very quick considering how he’d got injured a few weeks before the operation. His head was fine, but the back of it looked a bit messed up if the hair was shaved off. He was feeling 90%, and when Hazukk had told him about what he had heard about, Mako was determined to help.

He still felt like shit on the inside though. He was ready to forgive Bolin but wasn’t going to go to him. They’d both been knocked down much harder than Mako had hit him, but Bolin had to know that he wasn’t getting off that easily, and be the one to apologise first. Apart from Asami coming a few times while Mako was hospitalised, Hazukk was the only one who he’d been keeping regular contact with. He’d had misgivings about the journalist at the beginning, but they were becoming good friends quickly. Hazukk had visited Mako regularly enough in the hospital, about five times, and was fun to chat to. They’d mainly made small talk, but eventually, it always turned to darker things.

Hazukk hadn’t been lying about the Triple Threats accusations. Mako had had it confirmed by Chief Beifong a few days later, who he had apologised to for his outburst. There’d be a regular watch on Korra for the next six months every full moon. He didn’t want to believe it, but he didn’t have anything to do with the case anyway. His friendship with Korra might jeopardise the investigation, so he was to avoid visiting her unless absolutely necessary. If she visited him, there wasn’t much he could do but play along, but under his oath he had to obey Beifong’s orders before his personal feelings, and he certainly intended on doing that. He was a Commander on merit, after all.

“* _Buzz_ * Unit 1, there’s an armoured van coming from Penny Bridge at a high speed, get ready for combat, over, * _buzz_ *” the radio on his motorbike blurted out, interrupting Mako’s thoughts. He snapped his head out of the clouds and flicked the headlights on. The engine spluttered for a moment before revving into life, and Mako rolled out of the entrance, the door long gone. The vines had snarled around this block all those years ago so the street was abandoned this late at night, all the owners forced out of business. He heard the wagons from around the corner (this street was a dead end due to a tree cutting the road in half), and accelerated around the curve, the four-man vehicle right behind him. Suddenly, a loud scream was heard as his radio erupted into a series of reports all at once, and he sped up even more. 

They reached the popular street after a few sharp turns, and lo-and-behold, there was an armoured car which had crashed into a shop with the name 'Southern Style.’ The flimsy metal bars they had rolled down over the windows bore almost no resistance, and bystanders were running for their lives, screaming out the names of family and friends they were with. Mako slowed down and jumped off his bike. He grabbed a microphone he had equipped on his motorbike and spoke into it:

“This is the police, come out now with your hands above your heads! If you resist, we will have no choice but to use force,” his voice blared across the street.

“We’ve got hostages, take one step closer and they’re dead meat!” a voice called out from the inside of the shop. 

“Shit,” Mako cursed as he peered in through the wrecked shop-front. He saw three small figures being held by the neck and ice knives to their temples. They looked like women, who were barely looked old enough to be adults. Black tears from their make-up streamed down their faces, but they were all dead quiet. They must have been told not to say anything, because otherwise the chances were they’d be wailing like a baby sky bison trapped in a tunnel. There were two guards, who’d presumably been on a night shift, laying still on the ground in front of them, blood smeared over both their heads. The truck had rendered them unconscious, or worse.

“Commander Mako, what should we do?” one of the men in his unit asked him. There were two other units, of Unit 2 of eight and Unit 3 of six men respectively. Unit 2 was pulling up now.

“They have hostages, don’t approach yet,” he ordered as they emptied out of their cars. “Form a semi-circle around here, don’t let them escape.” He grabbed his radio, and turned it on. “* _buzz_ * Unit 3, this is Commander Mako, do not swarm around the entrance of the shop ‘Southern Style', secure all possible escape routes from the roofs and behind the building. I repeat, secure all possible routes from above and behind. * _buzz_ *.”

“* _buzz_ * Roger that * _buzz_ *,” was the brief response he got back. Mako walked up to ten metres away from the van. He saw about four more people, all in masks, throwing whatever they could access easily by smashing the glass cases and taking huge handfuls of jewellery into their gear bags. Rings, necklaces, pocket-watches, the whole lot. They worked quickly and soon nearly the entire shop's showpieces were gone. The police set up a perimeter with a three foot tall stone wall. Their were two firebenders, including Mako, a waterbender and ten metalbenders. 

“What’s the order, Mako?” came from one of his subordinates. “We have a clean shot at the men holding the hostages. If we get lucky, we can grab the hostages and get them out of harm’s way.”

“There’s no need for that,” Mako replied. “One foot wrong and we have three dead innocents on our hands. They’re cornered. We have all the exits covered, there’s no way out of this for them.” As he said that, he heard one of the looters shout that they were all finished. Mako grabbed his microphone again.

“I repeat, come out of the shop with your hands behind your heads and leave the hostages unharmed! This is your last warning.”

“Fat chance!” one of the men with ice knives shouted out. “We hold all the cards.” He tugged at the hair of the girl that he was holding, and she yelped. Her and Mako’s eyes met. She pleaded for help without saying anything. 

“Just stay calm and everything will be fine, girls,” he called out. His eyes darted around for anything that might be of help to him, but nothing stood out.

“Now!” a voice called out from the shop. The three women were released, and a pillar of earth each propelled them out of the shop and over the perimeter. Everyone’s attention naturally went to the women flying through the air, and five cops broke the semi-circle to rush behind and catch them. The Triple Threats took their opportunity and streamed out of the shop, four hopping into the back with their bags, and two getting into the front. The seventh man zipped open a backpack he had and nearly twenty remote bombs fell out, but before they hit the ground, a ball of air encased the bombs. Being controlled by none other than the seventh man himself.

“An airbender?” one of the police shouted in confusion. “Since when-“ 

“It doesn’t matter! Arrest them!” Mako ordered, although he was just as surprised to see one of them airbend. He got over the initial shock quicker though as he had seen it plenty of times before, while most of the cops there had probably never witnessed it. But the airbender wasn’t waiting around for them to get over their amazement. Five funnels formed on the ball and the bombs flew out, falling just in front of the perimeter, a couple landing over it. The driver clicked a remote detonator.

They exploded, destroying the barrier that the police had set up and distracting everyone. Mako clapped his palms together, fingers straight, and pointed them at the onrushing flame. It parted before him, and when the initial dust cloud cleared, Mako saw the van driving away. The airbender had presumably gotten in the back, but they weren't going to escape that easily. Mako sprinted to his motorbike, which had been protected from the blast by the police wagon, and forced his helmet on his head. He pulled on the accelerator, and pursued the thieves. The rest of Unit 1 and Unit 2 scrambled to get organised, but if Mako had waited for them, he may as well just go home while he was at it. He heard his radio buzz as they called for backup, but it wouldn’t come in time.

Unit 3 split into two groups, one on top of the buildings on each side of the road. They were remarkably quick in their pursuit, but their pace worked against them. Five Triple Threats met them each, and the group to Mako’s left was stopped completely, and drawn into a fight. However, the timing of the attacks was off, so the leader of the group to his right sacrificed himself to let the others keep going. Now, there were only three police compared to nineteen just a few minutes ago. 

“Right into their trap,” Mako muttered, the wind snatching his words before they even reached his own ears. He went into fifth gear, and managed to get alongside the van, his body practically glued to the bike to avoid his torso acting as a parachute and slowing him down. He blasted a huge fireball at the side of the armoured car, but barely even rocked it. The guy in the passenger seat poked his head out the window, and scowled at Mako. 

He flung a high-speed volley of water at the commander. Mako struggled to deal with it, and he tipped from side to side as he wiped the water off of his helmet glass. Too late, he saw the van take a sharp turn, which Mako hadn’t prepared himself for in the slightest. He squeezed the brake as hard as he could and came to a shuddering stop just in front of a corner shop. 

He looked at his reflection for a millisecond, then repositioned the bike at the vehicle getting away. He tensed his body and continued his pursuit of the Triple Threats, a look of determination hidden behind the reflection of the moon on his helmet.

The two remaining metalbenders swung around the curve on their cables and landed on top of the armoured van with a loud thud. They prepared to rip the top open, but a firebender and the airbender climbed out the hatch and jumped into a fighting stance.

“No-one messes with the Triple Threats!” the firebender yelled and threw a quick firejab at one of the cops. He followed this up with a roundhouse firekick immediately, not giving them any chance for an instant counter. It hit the first cop and he stumbled back, with his hands covering his face, nearly falling off. The second cop whipped his cable out and struck the firebender on the shoulder. A loud crack was heard despite the whizz of the wind and he grunted, falling to his knees and grabbing his shoulder. The second cop took one step forward and drop-kicked him back down the hatch.

“I guess we mess with the Triple Threats,” he taunted the airbender.

“You’ve never faced a bender like me,” the airbender said triumphantly. “Come get me if you’re so strong.”

“Cocky shit!” the cop shouted over the wind and threw a hard backhand at the airbender's nose. Brass knuckles formed around his fist and would’ve had the airbender out for the count, but airbenders weren’t known for their preference of fist fighting, even if this guy seemed to be a rogue. He grabbed the cop's wrist and shoved it upwards above his head. The cop quickly formed a baton by making his cable rigid with his other hand, and brought the full power of it down towards the Triple Threat's temple. The airbender was too smart for that though, and opened his hand vertically as if to catch it.

 _You'll break your hand before you manage that_ , the cop thought. But he found himself eating his thoughts as a torrent of wind met his baton. He watched it gradually get pushed back like he was losing an arm-wrestling contest against someone slightly stronger. When his arm was in line with his chest, the airbender raised his knee to chest height and drove his heel into to the stomach of the metalbender's armour. It didn’t hurt, but he was blown backwards into the first cop who’d just recovered from the fire attack. 

They both stumbled backwards blindly, tripping over each other’s feet. The airbender crouched, put one leg forward, and then spun 360° to make a helicopter kick. The air kick swiped their shins and the cops face planted before rolling off the side and onto the road. 

“One left,” the airbender said, and faced the motorbike quickly catching up to them.

Mako raced past his stricken colleagues and didn’t slow down at all. He sent an even hotter fireball at the van and scorched the back-doors. The airbender, threw air-punch after air-punch at Mako, but Mako dodged them all. 

_His fighting style is more like a firebender than airbender_ , Mako noted, seeing similarities with his own fighting stances. He nearly fell over while tilting, and hugged the bike even tighter. 

“Fadrh, get up here!” Mako heard the airbender shout, who seemed to have a fairly high voice. He was definitely from Republic City. A stocky man squeezed out the hatch and looked at Mako, who was gaining on them all the time. The airbender's next words were incomprehensible to Mako, but the earthbender got the message loud and clear. He got down on one knee and shoved his hands towards the sky, as if doing reps with a weight. A twelve-foot wall was erected in front of Mako, who didn’t have enough time to turn. He improvised, and blasted the ground beneath him with a flamethrower as he and his motorbike flew over the wall.

But the airbender had anticipated that. Their eyes met momentarily, a deer caught in headlights, and Mako was helpless to do anything as a whirlwind slammed into him and his bike. Momentum ripped him off his mode of transportation. Mako flailed about in the air as the tarmac rushed to greet him. He thrust his arms in that direction and directed all the power he could bend out of them. Two flamethrowers roared out of his fists and slowed his descent considerably. He landed awkwardly, his face in the ground, but unharmed apart from a few scratches. He raised his head to watch the van become smaller and smaller in the distance until it disappeared around a junction. He punched the ground in fury.

“Outsmarted from the very beginning,” he mumbled to himself. Then loudly, he shouted; “FUCK!”

  
Mako got a lift off one of the wagons back to headquarters, crammed in between two other men in the back. The smell of torched armour and humiliation hung thick in the air. He didn’t utter a word unless spoken to, and the journey back was as awkward as could be. There was an airship out looking for “an armoured van with a hatch in the roof,” but it was hopeless. Mako had been the last chance they’d had to maybe catch them, but he’d fucked that up. To pour salt into the wound, none of the Triple Threats who’d interfered with Unit 3 had been caught. Not even one. 

The radio kept blurting out incoherent orders to fill the silence. The speaker had been damaged in the explosions, as well as Mako’s motorbike. He sighed, knowing that he’d be on a pay cut for the next few weeks. 

The wagon arrived at the station just as ten rolled out, sirens blaring. Mako’s hopes went up. Maybe they had managed to track down the Triple Threats, and were sending reinforcements. He wanted to join them so badly, to make up for his earlier mistakes, but he knew that he had to report what had happened to Chief Beifong, which caused him to grimace.

 _If you’d been more alert, maybe you’d be looking forward to the report_ , he chastised himself. He got out the back of the police wagon and walked up to the front doors. Just as he was about to walk through, a number of metalbenders burst past him. He just about avoided being run into, but none of them even paid him any attention. _If it was this serious,_ he thought _, why didn’t we bring more officers there in the first place_?

As he made his way through the entrance hall and up the stairs to Beifong’s office, he gulped. Everyone was swarming around like bees in a hive, in a frenzy to get their job done. He stepped up to the door nervously, and noticed it was open. He knocked anyway.

“Come in!” Beifong barked. He walked in and was about to give an official report, but she stopped him before he even opened his mouth. “What are you doing here Mako? You’re supposed to be headed to Moutrang Prison! What makes you think you have the authority to ignore an order from me?”

“The radios were broken in an explosion, Chief,” Mako said, while cursing in his head. What did a high-level security prison like Moutrang need the police for? 

“Bollocks!” Lin Beifong cursed loudly. “Well, what happened? Did you arrest them?”

“They raided a jewellery shop on Paiodou Street as Hazukk said there would be,” Mako stated clearly. “We saved the hostages, but the Triple Threats got away with everything they took. On top of that, Paiodou Street will need to be partially closed off for a few days to rebuild the damage caused by bombs. Police equipment was also rendered useless during this.”

“I can’t believe we were so complacent, here we were all smug after busting a drugs shipment and now they’ve launched _seven_ simultaneous attacks across the city!”

“ _Seven_?” Mako repeated stupidly. “Wha-wha-wha-“

“Our forces have been spread thin over the city, and the main purpose of them was to draw attention away from the prison. Early reports say that all of Triple Threats caught just a few weeks ago have escaped.”

Mako slapped his forehead, furious. Hazukk’s tip hadn’t been wrong, but it was only a snippet of a much bigger event. “I’ll get in a wagon right away and head there.” He turned around to head out the door.

“Mako,” Beifong called. “Is there anything helpful about the benders you fought that might lead us to them?”

Mako was about to reply with a 'no', then realised that he was leaving out something huge. “Yeah. I forgot to mention, but they’ve recruited an airbender.”

“What? An airbender?” Beifong repeated. “I’m going to ring Air Temple Island first thing in the morning!”

“No,” Mako said, raising an eyebrow from his superior. “I know it sounds stupid, but he didn’t really fight like an airbender. He had a firebender's technique, if that sounds believable.” Beifong took this in, then nodded.

“I’m still calling them anyway. Anything else?” 

Mako thought about it, hard, for a moment. “No,” was the answer. 

“Then go to Moutrang Prison this very instant!” Beifong commanded, and Mako essentially jumped out of the office. She had that effect on anyone and everyone she wanted in the force. Good for keeping order, apparently. 

Back in the office, Lin Beifong rubbed her temples. This was an absolute shitshow.


	12. Chapter 12

**Very important chapter**

_Nearly a month and a half after Korra’s visit with Dr Xavi, just over two months into pregnancy_

Korra and Asami held each other tight. Asami traced her fingers around the faint scars left on Korra’s arms, barely visible now. They’d both come back from long days in their respective duties, and weren’t in the mood for talking. Asami tried to rest and get some shut-eye, but the temperature in the room was stifling despite the fact it was only January. She had opened all the windows she possibly could, and thrown the blanket off her and Korra, but that wasn’t helping nearly as much as it should have.

She felt a thin coat of sweat off of Korra, and her nightclothes were wet and sticking to Asami. _That’s strange, Korra should be able to control her temperature given that she’s an airbender, and a firebender too_ , Asami thought. 

A few minutes after midnight, Korra sat up. Asami was glad she wasn’t the only one feeling it, but now that Korra had gotten off of her, she actually felt quite chilly. The source of the heat actually seemed to be Korra herself.

“Baby, are you alright?” Asami asked, walking around and sitting beside her girlfriend. “You’ve been breathing really heavily, and ever since I got back from that trip last month, you’ve been in poor health. Please, talk to me, I won’t judge you for whatever you've gotten. Didn’t you go to the doctor? What did he say?”

 _She says she won’t judge me,_ Korra thought _. Fat chance of that_. 

“Look, Asami, it's honestly fine,” she said, “this is a bad time to be talking about our feelings. We’ve both got busy days tomorrow and it'll only add to your problems.”

“Why won’t you tell me!?” Asami snapped, her patience wearing thin. “We’re a couple, and have been for over half a year! I’ve been patient and ignored it when you’ve sidestepped my questions, but it's clearly not going to 'go away' or be a ‘matter of time' like you’ve been saying! I could develop it your illness because you didn’t tell me what it was.”

“No, you can’t, it’s… an Avatar problem that comes around every solstice, it should wear off in a couple of weeks,” Korra lied, and it was an obvious one too.

“Stop hiding from me!” Asami gave out. “How can I sleep in bed with you if you can't even be open with me?”

“I feel sick,” Korra muttered, putting a hand on her forehead. She’d been throwing up several times a week for the last while now.

“Don’t you think you can-“

Asami was cut off by Korra sprinting past her to the bathroom en-suite. She slammed the door behind her, locking it, and then fell on her knees to the toilet bowl. She retched and threw up for thirteen minutes straight, not once getting up. When she was done, she lay on the cold hard tiles, her head spinning. She felt the full moon pulling at her, the circulation of all the water around her, including the blood in Asami's body. She panted like a dog in the summer.

“Korra, look, I’m sorry for snapping at you,” Asami’s voice travelled through the door, her soothing tone back. “Today was particularly frustrating and I took it out on you, which was wrong of me. Please come out. We don’t have to talk about it tonight if you really don’t want to. I’m sorry.”

 _She’s apologising to me,_ Korra thought _. The irony._ She pushed herself off the floor and trudged to the lock as if she had weights on her shoulders. She opened the door and leaned on Asami.

“You don’t need to apologise,” Korra said, her head on Asami’s shoulder. “It’s all my fault.”

“We were both in the wrong,” Asami replied, and glanced at Korra’s belly. “Trying to diet?” was her attempt at a joke. It backfired horribly, but not in the way she thought.

“Is it that obvious already?” Korra said, pushing herself away from Asami, and looking down at her stomach, where there was a visible bump now. She walked to the bedroom door, and brushed away Asami’s hand when it landed on her shoulder.

“Korra, I’m sorry, it was a bad joke, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Asami said, but her words fell on deaf ears. Korra sped out the door, and slammed it behind her. Asami kicked the bed in frustration, thinking that her diet joke had made Korra storm out, when it was really the drag of the moon making her hormonal.

Korra started jogging despite the fact that she had no energy for most things nowadays, and didn’t stop until she reached a side door downstairs. She shoved them and they smashed off the walls they were connected to. The lock had been broken for a while now, and was going to be fixed the next day, but there were two handles to replaced now as well. 

She strutted over to the pond which she’d gone to every full moon recently, and started to drag the water out of its tranquil state. This had become a regular occurrence in the last two months. She was getting weaker every time she came out, and the water was sluggish to respond to her movements. She tried to whip a bench on the other side of the pond, but the whip fell apart halfway through. She continued to fling water about. Asami watched nervously from inside, her hand on the window. A servant came up to her.

“Ms Sato, are you okay?” he asked. “Is there anything that you need?”

“I’m fine, thanks Theo,” Asami said, and turned away from the window, resting her back on it. “I just don’t get it! We were getting along so well, but ever since I came back from my trip to the Earth Kingdom, she’s been hiding something. Something too big for me to know, apparently! I mean, she’s my girlfriend, for spirit’s sake! I can see why her and Mako broke up all those years ago. Why can’t we just be open?” The question was rhetorical but Theo Guivante didn’t pick up on this.

“Yeah, it sounds, really…” Theo started, trying to stay out of his master’s love-life. “Secret.”

Asami looked at him oddly. He usually stood up straight and was a tiny bit taller than her, but he was slouched now. He was looking down at the ground too, not looking at her directly.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any idea if what’s going on, would you, Theo?” Asami prodded, her eyes narrowing.

“No.”

Asami faced him, and he started shifting in his spot nervously. She grabbed his shoulder and jerked him so that he’d been looking at her in the eyes. He was very polite usually, so the way he abruptly said 'no' meant that he wanted this conversation to end. _He's not telling me something_ , Asami realised.

“What aren’t you telling me, Theo?”

“I’m not telling-I mean hiding-I mean-“

“Cut the bullshit, Theo,” Asami interrupted him, and a look of defeat appeared on his face. He hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Well, what do you know about the issue regarding her health?” Theo asked quietly, gesturing towards Korra to get his employer's piercing stare off of him.

“I said it a few seconds ago, I don’t know anything about it,” Asami said. “Apart from the fact that it makes her really sick and restless all the time.”

“She really hasn’t told you?” Theo said, shuddering. He had dug himself a hole.

“Told me what?” Asami commanded, her grip on his shoulder getting all the tighter.

“Well, when she went to the doctor a while ago, I escorted her there, and she ran out crying and insulting the doctor.”

“Why?” Asami pressed, confused.

“Well, it just so happened that she fell over from over-exertion, and I had to catch her. I saw her drop a piece of paper, which was her prescription, and I couldn’t help but catch the first line…” he trailed off, as if she would lose interest there.

“Finish your story, we’ve got plenty of time,” Asami ordered, not letting up her grip.

“I didn’t mean to look at it but…” Theo started, taking a large gulp, “it-said-that-a-pregnancy-test-was-positive,” he blurted out, but Asami caught the last line perfectly.

“Pregnancy test was positive...?” she whispered, her grip loosening and her hand falling limply it her side.

“Yes,” Theo said, thinking that she wasn’t sure she had heard him properly. Asami stared at him, flabbergasted, distraught, then her face switched to pure rage.

“HOW DARE YOU MAKE UP LIES ABOUT MY GIRLFRIEND!” Asami bellowed, waking up the entire mansion, but Korra didn’t notice from outside somehow, or if she did, she didn’t bother checking it out. “YOU ARE LUCKY TO HAVE SUCH A HIGH PAYING JOB IN THESE TIMES, AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO COME UP WITH THAT?!”

“Ms Sato, please,” Theo said, cowering beneath the smaller woman. “It’s just what I saw. I didn’t mean to go saying it but you forced my hand.”

“I forced your hand?” Asami chuckled, finding humour in her rage. “I forced your hand? Well, you’ve forced my hand in firing you! Don’t let me find you here in the morning.” She turned to walk away.

“Wait!” Theo said desperately. He didn’t want to get involved any further, but his job was on the line, and he wasn’t going to let the Avatar’s private life affect that.

“What?” Asami asked sharply.

“I have proof,” he said, and her ears perked up at that word. “Hard, undeniable evidence.”

“What is it?” Asami asked, her attention back in his hands.

“The prescription from her doctor, Dr Xavi. I have it in my bedroom.”

Asami’s heart sunk. She wanted to deny it so bad, so much, but Theo was generally a very smart person. He wouldn’t bother lying about something like this if he knew that it would be found out in a couple of minutes.

“Take me there,” she commanded, and he nodded. The servant walked briskly through the hallway and down to the servants' quarters, his master tailing him. On the way, Asami glanced at Korra, who was throwing up again. She usually would’ve found it disgusting, but she couldn't tear her eyes away until the row of windows ended. She followed Theo down to his room and he opened the door for her. She silently watched him as he rummaged through the shelves in his bedside cabinet. He had a very small but well-kept room, a result of serving somebody else all day.

“Got it,” Theo announced in a shy way, and held up a crumpled piece of paper. Asami’s hands, which had been sweaty from them being clasped together, snatched it out of the servant's hands. She ran her eyes over the words, and covered her mouth in horror as Theo’s claim were verified. Her eyes started to tear up, and she looked at Theo, one question potentially saving Korra.

“How did you get this?”

“Originally I put it back in her pocket, but I noticed that she tried to throw it away the next day,” Theo explained. “When I dug it out, I did so with the intention of giving it back to her when she needed to read it. But I realised soon after that I couldn’t just give it back after a while, so I kept it, waiting for a subtle opportunity.” He sighed. “This is nothing like I intended. I’m sorry, Ms Sato.”

Asami glued her lips shut to avoid any sound coming out. She was going through a rollercoaster of emotions. She felt betrayed the most out of all of them. Korra had been there for her so much during the last few years, even when it was only through letter writing. When her father had been brutally squashed like a mosquito, she’d had Korra to fall back on. Korra had thought she’d lost her father at one point too, and emphasised with Asami. When she had confessed her love, Korra not only accepted it, but returned it fully. When she had been brainwashed, Korra went and brought her back before she did Mako and Bolin.

 _Was that all a lie?_ her mind asked _. Was every kiss just fake then? How many times has she gone behind my back and gotten with somebody else?_

“Ms Sato, is there anything I can do to help?” Theo asked, and she focused her vision on him. She wanted to scream at him for revealing the truth to her, but he had just been a good servant. More loyal than Korra.

“Mr Guivante,” she said formally, holding in her emotions. “You’re rehired, but go to bed. And do not come out in any circumstance unless I clearly call for you. Am I making myself clear?”

“Crystal, Ms Sato,” he replied. She walked out the door, and he shut it behind her.

She had one sliver of hope left. If Korra really denied it in an irrefutable fashion, then maybe Asami could go with her to the doctor and get a test to prove the paper in her hand wrong. She knew that she shouldn’t, but her heart weighed on that tiny chance that everything was one big fat misunderstanding.

She walked out over to the pond, where Korra was standing unsteadily, threatening to fall in. She didn’t offer a gentle hand to help balance her, but instead shoved her near shoulder to that they would be eye to eye.

“Hey Asami, what the matter?” Korra asked feebly, taken aback by the motion. “Is something wrong?”

“You tell me,” Asami responded coldly, and rammed the piece of paper in Korra’s chest. Korra put a hand on it to stop it from falling onto the ground, and held it up to the moonlight, clear in the cloudless sky despite the season. Her eyes widened, not in shock, but realisation of the fact that she had been found out. This was all it took to confirm Asami’s information, and her breath caught in her throat.

“Asami, please, I didn’t want to hurt-“

“Is it true?” Asami questioned, her voice hushed, needing that final bit of verbal confirmation for closure. Korra looked down at the ground, quiet. “ANSWER ME!”

“…Yes,” Korra admitted, hanging her head in shame. “I was hoping to keep you from finding out for as long as possible, but now, I guess that’s over.” A tense moment of silence followed, Asami trying to find the right words to express herself.

“Why?” she asked morosely, her voice cracking slightly, but she swallowed the rising emotion down for the time being.

“I never meant to hurt you,” Korra repeated, and tried to move closer to Asami but one cold glare stopped that idea before it got into motion.

“Am I not good enough for you?” Asami whispered, her attempt at keeping her emotion down failing miserably. “Am I too ugly?”

“Asami, of course not, you’re beautiful,” Korra reasoned, desperately trying to think of a half-decent excuse. The thing was, in the month and a half she’d been anticipating this scenario play out, she’d never found one.

“That kiss,” Asami started. “Our first one. In the spirit world. It felt so real.” She wiped the tears from her eyes, and shivered in the cold midnight air, only one layer on. “I had wanted this relationship for years, and finally, I’d gotten it. You liked women too, and I could be with someone who didn’t know me as a rich, lonely woman, as Ms Sato, but as Asami.” She started breathing heavily, using all her will to not scream all her feelings at once. She had to vent it properly. Desolation hung thick in the air.

“You healed my wounds,” she continued. “I picked up the pieces of my dead father, my only family left, earlier that day! We were supposed to live happily ever after together, no matter the setbacks. Maybe even for the rest of our lives.”

“You mean, married!?” Korra asked, shocked. She loved Asami but they hadn’t even been together for a year.

“I never had someone to hold onto until you came,” Asami revealed.

“No-one?” Korra repeated, confused. “But what about your dad?”

“He was always working, he could never spare too much time for me, and never opened up a whole lot. He always thought he had to be a strong figure to set an example for me.” Asami paused, and stared Korra in the eyes. “You were that figure ever since Harmonic Convergence! You turned into a giant and fought for the fate of the world, you turned yourself over to Zaheer to let the airbenders live, when you knew that he would probably try to kill you!

“Even when you were poisoned with a LITRE of mercury, and when we saw you outside, you were flying around chucking giant boulders like it was nothing!” Asami suddenly shouted.

“Asami, I couldn’t have gotten through that without you,” Korra said. “You helped me get through the most difficult part of my life. After I fought Zaheer, I was crippled in bed for six months, and you kept me company when Mako and Bolin stopped writing letters.”

Asami didn’t say anything for the next minute. She had full on believed that the physiological incisions into her heart had been healed. But they were scars, and a knife had been plunged back in, reopening them like they were a cooked leg of boar.

“Who was it?” she interrogated suddenly. “Was it Mako?”

“No,” Kora lied, but it was convincing. She had planned this part out easily enough. She refused to blame Mako for this, the universe put up signs all over the place for her. She had been tired, so she should’ve gone home. He had tried to pretend he wasn’t there, and she intruded into his home, but even then, he accepted her with good grace. Asami seemed to buy the lie.

“Then who?”

“I went to a bar after a long day of meetings at the City Hall, and I got drunk. Some random guy came up to me and I went home with him. I don’t even remember what he looked like or his name.” That wasn’t what Korra had in her head, but it was what came out. Unfortunately, she couldn’t have phrased it much worse.

“Some... random guy?” Asami echoed. 

That disturbed her. All the lengths she went to on a regular basis to spend time with Korra, and when she left her mansion to her for a few weeks, she decided to head to some ‘random’ guy's house? “Some _RANDOM_ guy? Is that all it took for you to cast me away?!”

“Asami, I wouldn’t have dreamt of it in a million years if I was sober,” Korra pleaded, tears filling in her own eyes.

“They say drunk words are sober thoughts,” Asami said. “You told me that, didn’t you?”

“That doesn’t apply-“

“SAME FUCKIN’ CONCEPT!” Asami cried. “I thought I could read people when they were lying, but I was a damn fool! How far into pregnancy are you?”

“Two months,” Korra mumbled.

“What?” Asami said, genuinely not hearing her.

“Two months,” Korra said louder, trying to find words to express her shame. She kept on trying to think of an excuse while Asami walked up to her.

The clap of flesh sounded throughout the night air as Asami slapped Korra hard on the face. The force of it was so thorough that Korra fell on her ass. Korra rubbed her cheek, but it wasn’t the power of it that hurt. It was that not once before that night had Asami ever laid a finger on Korra. She’d beaten up plenty of others in the past, but they’d always been gentle and kind to each other. Not anymore.

Asami followed this up with another slap, and another. She didn’t care that Korra was pregnant, Korra had toyed with Asami's feelings and tossed them in the trash the first real chance she got.

“Asami… please… let me explain…” Korra said between each strike, trying to hold up her arms to protect herself but not succeeding.

“STUPID SLAG!” Asami screamed, her voice cracking.

Suddenly, Korra’s instincts took over. She had a baby inside of her that could be facing the consequences of this beating when it was born.

“Stop!” she yelled, holding her hand out to try and catch Asami’s strikes, her eyes closed. Strangely enough, they did stop even though Korra hadn’t caught either one of Asami’s hands. After a few moments of suspense, she peeked open her eyelids.

Asami stood there, tilted over Korra, but was completely motionless. Her body shook slightly, and the action that Korra was performing hit them at the same time. 

Korra was bloodbending Asami.

“I’m so, so sorry!” Korra apologised, immediately releasing her grip. “I-“

“Get away from me!” Asami cried, the terror in her eyes very real as she edged away from her now ex-girlfriend. “You monster!” She started running back to the house.

“Asami, wait!” Korra wailed, and reached out for Asami, inadvertently bloodbending her again. It was much weaker this time though, and Asami ploughed through the hold with pure will, no longer recognising Korra as the same person as before when she looked back. The doors slammed shut as Korra pushed herself onto her feet. She felt the night trying to swallow her up.

“I need to get away from here,” Korra panicked, and started running. Out of the proximity of the house. Into the woods. Out of the grounds. Towards Republic City. It didn’t matter where, she just needed to escape to somewhere dark and quiet in the city.

Sim nodded grimly over to his colleague on the roof of the Sato mansion, knowing there was no denying what they had witnessed. They started to trail after Korra from a distance, even though they had all the evidence they needed.

The Avatar was a criminal, and in the morning, when the full moon had passed, she would be arrested.

**Thank you WasteTimeandType for leaving kudos! It really does mean a lot, honestly. Also thanks to all the guests who have left kudos, if I could address you all individually I would. 200 hits! I am buzzing, thank you so much!**


	13. Ungrateful

Korra woke up with a sore back from bad posture, her pillow salty from all the tears of the previous night. Her head was a little bit clearer now that the full moon was gone, but she kept on trying to believe that it was just a bad dream.

 _It wasn’t a dream. I bloodbent Asami_ , Korra thought, and depression started to drape over her heart all over again. She felt stifled in her old room, and stood up to open the window. A chilly breeze washed in as she opened her shutters and gazed grimly at the old probending arena, and the rest of Republic City. It had risen from its night time slumber and looked so much better already than it had half a year ago when she looked at the portal during Verek and Zhu Li's wedding with Tenzin and Asami. She was on Air Temple Island for the first time in ages, having had no place to sleep last night and had trudged in at about 2am. No-one even knew she was there.

She felt like crying, but it was as if an emotional block was in her body now, not producing any more tears. She just stood there silently, going over the previous night’s events. Her mind wandered from those to the day when Jinora had gotten her airbending tattoos and Asami had been fixing her up for a formal Avatar appearance. Her heart felt like shrivelling up but she was already so devoid of emotion that there was no more room for it to shrivel. She rested a hand on her stomach, which was clearly bigger now, as Asami had mentioned.

 _I should tell him, she debated mentally. He's the father, he at least has the right to know. But what if he calls me crazy? He didn’t imply he remembered what happened when we went drinking. He might reject the baby entirely and genuinely think that it’s not his_.

She sat down on her bed, clutching her head, which was spinning despite the fresh air.

 _Mako wouldn’t do that, would he? Would he?_ At this she buried her face in her pillow and fresh tears started flowing, her emotional block gone _. Maybe I’ll talk to Bolin. If I keep it vague, he won’t assume that it was Mako. He’ll find out eventually anyway._

At roughly midday, Korra heard footsteps outside her door stop. She was stilling feeling like shit, but wiped her puffy face and lay on the bed, trying to act nonchalant. A small figure slid the door open, and Pema looked at the Avatar lying unnaturally still on her bed.

“Korra!” she said, pleased. “I didn’t know you were here! If I had I would’ve made you breakfast. Are you hungry? You look starving.”

“I’m fine,” Korra replied coldly, and turned her back to Pema. Pema frowned, and gently walked over to the foot of her bed, looking at Korra concerned.

“What’s wrong, Korra?” she tried gently. “Did you have a fight with someone? You look like you had a rough night.”

“I said I’m fine,” Korra reiterated. “Nothing happened, can you please just leave me alone?”

“Korra, I know that isn’t all there is to it,” Pema said, not moving. “Did you have a fight with Asami? That would explain why you’re sleeping here and not at hers.”

 _Damn, she can read me like a book_ , Korra thought. “Pema, I know you I want to help, but I just need some alone time.”

“Maybe I can relate to you somehow,' Pema offered. “I went through a lot of trauma myself when my family was kidnapped by the Equalists, and I thought that they would have their bending taken away. But you saved them. I at least owe you that favour.”

Korra contemplated this. Pema had raised four children; she would know a thing or two about pregnancy. She opened her mouth to try and say something, but at that moment, two metalbending police officers appeared in the doorway.

“What are you doing here?!” Korra asked, startled. Did they know that she had bloodbent last night? How did they know? A gasp caught in her throat. Had Asami called them?

“You didn’t answer the phone at Sato Mansion and an officer on a night shift said that he saw you coming here last night. Chief Beifong said that she needs you. Urgently.” The officer spoke very clearly, as if he were reciting lines off of a manual.

“An officer on a night shift?” Korra asked sceptically. It sounded too convenient given what she had done last night.

“Apparently,” the officer replied gruffly, his face unreadable.

“It sounds like you’re lying,” Korra tested.

“Listen, we didn’t come all this way just to hear you say no,” the second cop started. “Sorry if the Chief can’t give you verbal confirmation every time you’re needed. Our badges should be enough.”

“Korra, I think it’s best that you go with them,” Pema said soothingly, laying a hand on Korra's shoulder. “It'll be fine, what do you have to worry about that would concern them?”

Korra cursed in her mind, Pema having unintentionally snookered her. “Yeah, you’re right, I don’t have anything to worry about,” she told Pema clearly. She spotted her old glider, the one she used before her previous one got broken, standing all on its own in the corner. She grabbed it and started to walk out the door, but the first guy put a hand across her to stop her from going any further.

“You won’t need that,” he said hurriedly, receiving a curious glance. “We used a boat to get here, you can come with us.”

“No harm in having it with me,” Korra retorted, tension rising between her and the two guards. They both gave her a look of contempt, but said nothing as she kept the glider and led her out to the motorboat. The short trip only took a few minutes, and Korra hopped in the back of a wagon as soon as they got off the boat. She felt like a prisoner, un-ironically.

“What does Beifong want me for?” Korra asked on the way there.

“Top secret,” they both have replied in unison. Korra’s suspicion was growing, but if she ran from the police it would look very bad. _Probably newbies_ , Korra reasoned, even though they looked old enough, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

When they arrived, Korra couldn’t help but shake the feeling that everyone was watching her. _Where’s Mako?_ she realised suddenly. _I have to tell him before Asami does_. She raised the question of his whereabouts to her escorts, who were still walking beside her even though she had been through there countless times.

“Why?” he asked back. “What business do you have with Commander Mako?”

“He’s my friend,” she snapped. These guys wouldn’t relax at all. “I’ve barely seen him at all over the last seven months.”

“Not my problem,” he denied her.

“Prick,” she muttered under her breath, but ignored his glare when looked at her. After a few minutes of leading the way through the building, Korra finally arrived at Beifong's office. Her mood was considerably lighter with the prospect of work to take her mind off of her other problems.

“What’s up?” she greeted to a stiff Beifong as she walked in, who was sitting at her desk. Korra rested her glider by the door. She heard a click as the guard from the outside locked it. “What’s this all about?”

“Sit down,” Beifong ordered. Korra obliged slowly.

“So, what’s so urgent?” Korra asked, a little bit of challenge in her question.

“I didn’t bring you here for a job,” Beifong revealed, getting straight to the point. “I need you to answer me in full honesty from here on out Korra, or else things could get very ugly.”

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” Korra accepted, her heart rate rising.

“Good, because there were very concerning testimonies from the Triple Threats you single-handedly brought down over a month ago.”

Korra’s heart skipped a beat. _She knows. Does she? No, I’m a lot more reliable than the Triple Threats, they’d take my word over theirs' any day._

“They all claimed that you used bloodbending to subdue them, and our top truth see-ers have all reported that they were telling the truth,” Beifong stated, still keeping up a piercing stare, which Korra avoided.

“That’s nonsense!” Korra said, trying to laugh it off. She curled her hair around her index finger subconsciously. “I was never taught how to bloodbend, Katara went crazy the only time I asked her to teach me! Why would you believe them over me? And didn’t you interrogate them ages ago?”

“We planned on dismissing it as a sign of faith and not bothering you with it despite my general opinion which is that no-one is above the law,” Beifong continued, “but then when we were just about finishing up, an anonymous tip was sent that said you bloodbent them, and this was while they were still all in custody.”

 _That rules out Asami_ , Korra thought, but she didn’t think of why they had waited so long if that were the case. “And?” she asked, trying to sound impatient when she was in fact a nervous wreck.

“I just thought that I should bring it up to you,” Beifong said, as if exasperated at being bothered to have to have this conversation at all.

“My final answer is no,” Korra answered definitively.

“I obliged to ask you this next question,” Beifong said. “Have you bloodbent anyone since then, or even before it?”

“Never,” Korra replied with a slight hesitation, and her worst fears were amplified when Beifong slapped her forehead.

“God dammit Korra!” Beifong shouted, and pointed a finger at the water tribe woman. “We had surveillance on you last night, and my men say that you bloodbent Asami Sato! You’re in deep shit!”

Korra tried to object, but couldn’t find the right words to. “For how long-“

“We’ve been spying on you every full moon since the raid. Not only were you bloodbending, you lied about it to me!” Beifong stood up, her palms planted against the desk, towering over Korra.

“Do you know what we were fighting about?” Korra asked worriedly, wanting to know if Beifong’s men had included her big secret in their report.

“I don’t care about what it was, it would never justify a waterbender, nevertheless the Avatar, using bloodbending especially beside a body of water against a nonbender!” Beifong yelled, misinterpreting Korra’s question as an excuse to get her out of her predicament. Korra didn’t breathe a sigh of relief though.

“I’m sorry,” Korra confessed, and Beifong rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t thinking straight, it was-“

“I’d think you knew exactly what you were saying to me a few moments ago!” Beifong berated even louder. “And to add to that, you’ve also got a charge of domestic abuse against your girlfriend!”

“What’s my punishment?” Korra asked timidly. She knew that the punishments for bloodbending went from eight to twenty five years in prison, but she didn’t want to be second-guessing.

“You’ve got a lot of good credit stored up,” Beifong admitted. “But you’re still facing time, and I’d say you’d be lucky to get under five years!”

“Was this all planned?” Korra asked, trying to change the subject somehow, even though that was Beifong’s very first line. “You sent cops to escort me because you thought I’d run away?”

“I already told you that,” Beifong answered, not falling for it, and she shot a cable at close range which wrapped around Korra’s right wrist. Korra stood up and grabbed the cable with her right hand, pulling back.

“Let me explain!” she asked, her voice raising louder now too.

“Don’t make this harder on yourself,” Beifong ordered, and shot her other cable at Korra’s left hand. Korra was expecting it though, and caught in cleanly. She felt the metal burning her flesh as she fought against Lin Beifong in a tug of war. Korra may have been the Avatar, but she was no more than a skilled metalbender, and Lin Beifong was one of the best in the world. Korra heard the door handle rattle as the guards outside unlocked it and began to come in. They’d clearly been expecting resistance.

“LET ME GO!” Korra yelled, and snapped the wires in half. Beifong stumbled back from putting all her weight in the tug of war, as Korra brought both her hands to the opposite ear, and cut downwards, unleashing two blunt slices of air. They collided with the Chief of Police and she flew into the wall, getting winded with the impact.

The door slammed open and the two cops took a second to take everything in, the one and only Lin Beifong slumped against the wall. This was one second too late though. Korra spun on her heel, reached out with her hands, and tugged them back. The two guards were blown in and Korra stepped out of their path just in time to hear them smash into Beifong. But she didn’t bother admiring the view, and ran up to the now open door, grabbing her glider on the way out. She burst into the office where everyone had stood up, and had their fists up ready for a fight.

“Don’t make this harder on yourself, Avatar!”

“Bloodbending scum!”

“Why do you have create a new problem every time you fix one?”

“It’s just a big misunderstanding, trust me,” Korra said generally, hoping for a dip in the hostility. She didn't get one.

“You don't run this city, Avatar!” a detective shouted, and threw a volley of water at her. Korra realised that she didn’t have the time to convince them of her good will, and swiped her glider hard at everything in the room at once. A wall of air was let loose and everyone had their attack cancelled out as they were smacked back into the walls with all their desk and papers. Korra heard more men coming up the stairs, and cursed. The only exit was blocked, and she didn’t have enough energy to fight a whole squad of metalbenders. A ray of light caught her eye from the window. An idea hit her.

“I guess I’ll just have to make a new way out,” she announced, and went over to the window. It was too small to squeeze through in a hurry even if she removed the glass. So instead, she punched the wall and a hole large enough for three people was blasted open with a mix of metal and firebending. She jumped through as a flurry of shouts followed her out and started flying on her glider.

She grimaced as pains started to flare up in her belly once again. Those few moves had already taken a lot out of her. Gliding was second nature for an experienced airbender though, so she flew up on top of a skyscraper across the station without any trouble. She glanced down at the street, where confusion was quickly starting to spread. And just as she took that in, ten metalbenders landed on the roof. She spun, put on a tough face and pointed her glider at them menacingly, daring them to make the first move.

“You’re not helping yourself, Avatar,” the leader said, pointing his finger in retaliation to her glider. “Turn yourself in!”

“Doesn’t anything I’ve ever done in the past for Republic City count for me now?” Korra asked, trying to find sympathy.

“You ask the judge!" another man said, and shot his cable at Korra. The others joined in half a second later, and Korra raised a small semi-circle barrier of the roof to protect herself. Several chinks rang out at the same time as the granite was impaled, and most of it was ripped away from her on the pull-back. Korra used airbending to vault herself to the left-most cop, and landed a foot away from him.

“Damn you!” he condemned, and sliced his free cable at her. She ducked under it and bent the metal around his arms to behind his back. He let out a gasp and she brought the full force of her heel into his chest plate. He was engulfed his flames for a moment before being launched into the next three officers and throwing them off the edge. Korra knew they’d be okay, but she couldn’t go easy on them.

A block of granite clipped her left shoulder and she grunted, not giving them anymore appreciation than that. She jumped, glided over to the man who had just attacked her and pointed her toes. She then brought her toes up to her chest, legs straight, a column of fire forming after her foot. It brushed away his wires which were heading for Korra and smashed into him.

Another wire snagged her ankle, catching Korra off guard momentarily. She managed to hang onto her glider and dragged the metal covered cop across the roof with her foot using metalbending. He didn’t reel it back though, and she was brought down abruptly. She snapped the cable with her hands, and then thrust an inferno his direction. He barely had enough time to raise a wall to protect himself, and was blown off the roof by the explosion of his wall in front of him.

“You’re in trouble Avatar!” one of the remaining cops yelled at her. She floated her glider into her hands using airbending, which she’d dropped a few feet away, and doggedly watched for their next move.

Suddenly, the siren of an airship sounded around the area, and Korra spotted one heading towards them. She also noticed the amount of cops pouring out of the station. It was too far up to see faces, so she couldn't see if Mako was there. That number would be too much for her to handle. Maybe in full health, and with the Avatar State, she might have been able to ward them off, but if this fight continued, she’d be defeated in a matter of minutes. She was already feeling tired from her current exertion. There was only one place left she could escape to.

“Give yourself in and we might remove resisting arrest from your report,” another one bluffed, but Korra saw through it immediately. She couldn’t hand herself in now, when she’d assaulted countless officers.

“I don’t have the time for this!” she announced, and inhaled deeply, knowing she’d need a lot of energy for this next stunt. She launched three strong air jabs at her three closest enemies – no, opponents - and a huge fireball at the closest. It covered the entire rooftop, and the guards erected walls from the roof to protect themselves. But when the smoke cleared, Korra was gone.

She flew away as fast as she could, which was nearly as quick as a hard pace would be for her usually. She flew alongside Kyoshi Bridge as wagons trailed after her, but themselves and the airship were no match. She reached the entrance of the spirit portal after seven minutes, and landed in a heap.

“What’s the issue, Avatar?” a moose-eel spirit with a creaky tone asked, landing beside her.

“I’m being hunted,” she replied after a few moments. “By the law enforcement.”

“Do you plan to head to the spirit world in evade them?” it asked, its voice making Korra want to clear her own throat even though she was speaking just fine.

“Yeah,” she answered truthfully.

“I will not stand for any more humans casually wandering into the spirit world like they own it!” it lectured her, and she groaned. Whenever she found a solution to a problem, it was generally followed by a problem specifically because of her solution. The universe hated her.

“What do you suggest I do then?” she retorted.

“Close the portal for good!” the spirit demanded, and Korra blinked.

“Close it? But that would create even more issues, and this time with the airbenders, the only group of people that don’t hate me,” she responded. “No! That’s crazy! Why would I ever-“

She was cut off by a speaker blaring across the vines, and she diverted her attention to the ten wagons that had just pulled up outside the vines' reach. Dozens of officers poured out. In there, she spotted Mako. Her heart dropped, remembering that she still hadn’t told him that he was to be a father.

“Avatar Korra, you are under arrest for numerous charges,” a high-ranking officer’s voice sounded. “Nobody, not even the Avatar, is above the law. Come silently before you make this any worse.”

“What do you value more, Avatar?” the moose-eel prodded, and Korra dug her heel into a vine in frustration. She was beaten.

“I’m closing the portal,” she announced.

"Perfect," the moose-eel spirit said, and vanished, probably back to the spirit world. It was a good thing that they didn't need to portal to come and go as they wanted.

Korra jumped through. When she emerged on the other side a few moments later, she drew in all the spiritual energy she could, which very strong given the fact she was next to a portal, and placed her palm flat on the semi-sphere. She felt an enormous rush of power plough through her chi network, and nearly fell over, but she gritted her teeth, and continued the sealing. The Avatar State, which had been inaccessible ever since fight Triple Threat fight, rose into action and helped her stay focused. She nearly blacked out as the beacon going up into the sky slowly got smaller.

After about ten seconds, it snapped shut, along with the Avatar State, and she collapsed, on the ground, her energy wiped clean. She didn’t even have enough time to register that she was falling, as a welcome slumber swallowed her up.


	14. 'Friends'

**Thank you for all the love! Will be posting two chapters next week, and I hope to have the entire thing done by the end of August, if everything goes to schedule. Enjoy**

Mako pulled up to the station on his brand-new bike. He pulled off his helmet and stared at the sky pensively. All of the lights that had come about from the portal were gone, all sucked back in with Korra’s escape. The spirits weren’t wandering around anymore, and it seemed that one of his closest friends was now a criminal. He locked his bike in the garage and headed up to Beifong’s office. She wanted to talk to him about something, and he knew that it couldn’t be good if she was making time for him with all the commotion that was going on. 

Airships were patrolling the skies for the sake of staying alert, but everyone knew that she wouldn’t be traceable in the spirit world. They may as well chase a school of fish in the sea. He knocked on her door, and she beckoned him in. He entered and waited nervously for whatever she had in store, although he didn’t dare show it.

“Shut the door and sit down” Beifong ordered. Mako obliged.

“What’s the problem Chief?” he asked.

“I’ll get straight to it,” Beifong began. “Korra was caught red-handed bloodbending Asami Sato last night and we brought her in here on the preface of helping us out with a job. When I mentioned the Triads claims, she denied it, and I was inclined to believe that.

“But then she lied when I asked her if she had bloodbent any other time. I told her we had people who saw her bloodbend Asami and she confessed. Then, she resisted arrest, and blew that hole in the wall just outside the door as I’m sure you’ve already seen. She assaulted dozens of officers, including myself, and then shut the portal after her when she fled to the spirit world.”

Mako stared dumbly at his boss, the second part of that catch-up lost on him. He had had a hard time accepting that she might have bloodbent the Triple Threats, but they were gang members. They weren’t exactly looking out for her safety. But… Asami?

“She bloodbent… _Asami_?” Mako asked, scarcely believing his ears.

“Yes, Sim was on the lookout, I wouldn’t have had anyone I couldn’t trust on the case,” Beifong answered. “She was looking not much time before, but now, she’ll be facing a lot more than previously.”

“Shiiiiit!” Mako cursed slowly to himself. “Can’t we pardon her this one time? She’s saved our asses too many times to count! She’s got to have a bit of credibility at least.”

“I told her that, but she ignored it,” Beifong replied. “Look; I like her too, she’s been very helpful to us over the years, but there’s no way we can just brush this off now. She could’ve stayed and faced the repercussions, but she ran off! My hands are tied.”

“She gave you your bending back, for crying out loud!” Mako argued, his voice raising. “Aren’t you in the slightest grateful for that?”

“Don’t you dare raise your voice when speaking to me!” Beifong commanded, and Mako shrunk back down. “Of course I’m grateful for that, and I always will be! But do you remember who took it away in the first place and terrorised the city?”

“Amon,” Mako answered.

“And what did he use to take it away?” Lin Beifong pressed.

“Bloodbending,” Mako answered glumly, remembering how he was terrified at the sight of Amon looking over him, before Korra saved him. He’d had countless nightmares about it in the weeks after. He still got slight PTSD whenever he saw an old picture of the disgraced Equalist leader.

“Now, I am ordering you to go and search for clues as to where Korra might try to lay low,” Beifong told him. “I only really ever had a work relationship with her, but you’re one of her best friends, so I want you to get inside her head and think where she would go.

“But you’re also close friends with Asami Sato, so I want you to go to her and get every detail out of last night from her. We couldn’t get close enough to hear what they were arguing about, and we don't know how responsive she’ll be to questioning from random police officers. Find out what they were fighting over and ask Asami if she has any idea on the whereabouts of Korra. This isn’t a friendly visit, Mako! Keep it strictly professional.”

Mako didn’t answer back immediately. He still didn’t believe that Korra and Asami were fighting over something so bad that Korra would bloodbend Asami. He realised that he probably would have gone to Asami and asked her himself regardless.

“Well? What are you waiting for? I don’t have all day!” Beifong snapped, and Mako shot up out of his chair.

“On it right now, Chief,” he said, and saluted as was custom. He left her office, and nearly ran back to his bike, the engine still warm from being on not even ten minutes ago. He put his helmet on and rolled out the garage. He drove over to the city map in front of the station which was for anyone to see, and planned out his best route. It was early in the afternoon, and the traffic looked really bad from what he could hear of all the beeping. He reckoned it would take around 35 to 40 minutes to get to the Sato Mansion.

He wasted no time and started on his way. He patiently wove his way through the streets, wide and narrow. He was making really good time when he passed by The Sun headquarters, a thirteen-storey building. There was a huge crowd outside, dozens upon dozens of people fawning over papers. His curiosity got the better off him and he drove up to one of the stands. He ignored the people trying to shove past him for a paper and grabbed one for himself.

“Get in the line, dipshit!” someone called out to him, despite the fact that he was clearly a policeman. Normally, he would’ve challenged whoever said that, but his eyes were glued to the headline. It read:

“ **AVATAR KORRA FLEES CITY AFTER CAUGHT USING BLOODBENDING TO ENFORCE THE LAW** ”

 _How do they know? And so soon too?_ he thought. He looked for the author of the story, intending to find out who they were, where they lived and question them. But his eyes widened as the name HAZUKK ARAHONOV was written in bold just under the headline.

“Hey, are you gonna pay for that?” the vendor asked, and Mako looked up at the short man.

“How much?”

“Ten yuans,” the vendor informed, and Mako tossed him the change from his pocket. A few people started to give out about how he skipped the line, but he ignored them and hopped back on his bike. He shoved the paper inside his belt and arrived at the Sato Mansion sixteen minutes later.

“What’s your business here?” the security guard at the front gate asked. “Ms Sato explicitly said that she doesn’t want any visitors.”

“It’s police business,” Mako answered, the guard clearly not recognising him. That was logical, he hadn’t been there in over a year with escorting Wu everywhere and whatnot. He held the badge up and the guard looked at it sceptically. “And tell her it’s Mako.”

The guard eyed him suspiciously before brushing it off and radioing someone in the mansion, presumably Asami. Mako drove up to the door and held his helmet in one hand as he banged loudly on the door three times. An elderly servant opened it almost instantly.

“Ms Sato is in a very fragile mood and she is refusing any visitors at the moment. She hasn’t left her office all day and barely eaten,” the servant said. “I think that’s it’s best you come another time.”

“This isn’t a friendly visit, it’s police business, and we know about her and Korra’s incident,” Mako declared formally. “I’m coming in either way.”

The servant paled at the mention of Korra. He pursed his lips, then reluctantly let Mako in after a second. “Her office, you said?” Mako asked.

“Yes,” the servant confirmed. “I’ll go with-“

“It’s fine, I know this place well enough, I’ve been here before,” Mako stopped him, and quickly made his way to the grand office doors upstairs, which seemed to be locked. There seemed to be a lot of sniffling inside. He knocked once, and called out; “Asami, this is Mako, I’m here on police business.”

“Fuck off!” was the reply he got, but he didn’t take it to heart. He decided to try be nicer.

“Asami, we know what happened last night between you and Korra, we’ve had her on a watch,” Mako said, and the sniffling stopped suddenly. “I don’t want to be a prick about it, but if you turn me away now, they’ll send someone else with no time for your feelings, and they might assume that you’re trying to cover up for her. Please, open up.”

“What did they see?” Asami's hoarse voice travelled through the door, to see if he was bluffing.

“That Korra bloodbent you. She confessed to Chief Beifong,” Mako said, cupping his hands so that it wouldn’t travel through the halls. He didn’t know if the servants knew the exact details behind why she was so upset, but he couldn’t be just shouting it out anyway. Asami didn’t say anything. Then Mako heard her feet _thud thud thud_ along the floor on the other side. She unlocked the doors and flung them open. She grabbed him by the shirt and tugged him inside before slamming them shut again and locking them.

Mako was taken back by her appearance. Her face was red and swollen from crying, but there were no streaks of makeup or trademark eyeliner it. Her hair was all over the place, and she was still in her bedclothes. She trudged over to one of the couches in the room, and Mako noticed how it was torn up. Everything from the books ripped open with torn pages all over the floor, and clouds of stuffing from her furniture. It looked like an angry tigerdillo had been let loose in there. She fell miserably down into the couch, which sunk a fair bit under her weight, and nearly started crying again, but managed to hold it in.

“Did you just get out of bed?” he asked, trying not to sound stupid.

“I didn't sleep last night,” Asami replied dryly, evidently not in the mood for talking. “If you’re wondering, we broke up.”

“Really?” Mako asked, then mentally slapped himself on the forehead. _Of course they would’ve broken up_! “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Mako, do us both a favour and cut the small talk,” Asami said, projecting her impatience across the room.

“Right,” Mako obliged, and straightened himself up. He got out his notebook and pen. “Is it true that Korra bloodbent you last night?”

“What type of question is that?” Asami snapped. “You already know the answer to that! You just said it a few seconds ago!”

“It’s better if we hear you say it aloud,” Mako explained. “That way we have a quotable witness other than the police.”

“Yes,” Asami confirmed with almost no hesitation. “That bitch Korra bloodbent me.” Mako copied it down word for word, putting aside the fact that Asami, who was head over heels for Korra the last time they had met, showed no remorse in that sentence.

“Did Korra mention anywhere at all that she might be going?”

“What do you mean?” Asami asked, confused. “Shouldn’t you guys know where she is? She didn’t say anything about where she was going. She bloodbent me and I ran into the house. She didn’t follow me.”

Mako groaned, the search for Korra now much harder. He hadn’t expected any real clues or tips from Asami, but that wasn’t even pointing in any direction. “She closed the portal after she escaped to the spirit world.”

“Escaped? Shouldn’t the police have her in custody right now?” Asami asked, silently demanding a 'yes'.

“We tried but…” Mako started, trying not to add fuel to the flame. “She attacked Chief Beifong and blew a hole in the side of the station. We had countless men and a bunch of airships, but she beat up a lot of them and escaped the airships. Then she stopped anyone from following her into the spirit world by shutting the portal. That’s why we’re wondering if you know anything.”

“Coward,” Asami cursed Korra, then looked back at Mako, a tiny note of satisfaction on her face in the fact that Korra was being hunted down so soon. “No, although if I were you, I’d probably check the South Pole. She’s bound to come out of one of the portals eventually. Why don’t you just guard them from our world?”

“She only escaped about an hour ago, and that’s something for the presidents and water tribes to discuss. Though now that you mention it, Tonraq is the Southern Chief. He probably won’t agree to letting his daughter be handed over so easily.”

“Just suggesting it,” Asami said. “What else do you want to ask me?”

“Has Korra ever bloodbent you before last night? There’s no shame in admitting it, Asami.”

“I wouldn’t hide it,” Asami declared, “but no. We’d never had a proper fight before last night. That was the only big one.”

“You're sure about this?” Mako asked. “Remember, there’s-“

“I heard you fine the first time!” Asami snapped. “As much as I’d like to see her rot, I won’t give her any type of stick that she can beat me with.”

Mako blinked. _That was dark. Let her rot?_ he thought. What in the world were they arguing about? “Ok,” he said, trying to avoid making eye contact with her such was the intensity of her stare. “What were you two arguing about?”

“You don’t already know?” Asami said, surprised. “I thought you said you had a watch on us last night.”

“They couldn’t get close enough to hear any of the details,” Mako answered. “You said that it was your first big fight.”

“Yeah,” Asami confirmed. “She really didn’t tell anyone then?”

“What is it?” Mako pressed, his pen hovering above the paper.

“Korra’s pregnant,” Asami said. Mako dropped his pen, the clatter of it on the ground bounding around the walls. He pierced Asami with a gaze that even caused her to back away despite her shitty mood.

“ _What?!_ ” Mako practically shouted. “You can’t be serious!”

“I’m dead serious, she’s pregnant,” Asami repeated. “She hid it for ages, and she had the audacity to start asking me for forgiveness when I found out.”

“Who’s the father?” Mako asked, his police duties temporary in the rear view. “When did this happen?!” He racked his head, trying to think of men that Korra was close to.

“While I was away on a business trip,” Asami said. “And it was with… was with…” She started to breathe deeply, struggling to control herself, trembling a bit.

“With who?” Mako demanded. “Was it… no, it couldn’t be… Was it Bolin?! No, he’s probably in Zaofu with Opal right now.”

“No, she said it was with… 'some _random_ guy',” Asami said, and with that, she broke down into more fresh tears. She sobbed uncontrollably, but when Mako tried to go over and comfort her, she pushed him away. 

“I’m not letting myself get close to anyone ever again!” she shouted. “I always get crushed by anyone I let myself be attached to one way or another. You, my dad and now even Korra!”

“Asami, please, that’s kinda stupid to say,” Mako said as he tried to talk sense into her, but he instantly realised that was the worst thing to say to someone emotionally distraught like Asami.

“I’M BEING STUPID?” Asami screamed, standing up. “GET OUT! FUCK YOUR STUPID POLICE INTERVIEW!”

“Wait, Asami, I didn’t mean it like that,” Mako said, holding his hands up. She ignored that and tried to swipe at him, but didn’t even manage to reach his arms. She fell over onto the ground on all fours, and lay there. The floodgates continued to stay open. Mako tried to put a calming hand on her shoulder, but then, she _bit_ him.

“AGH!” he cried out, pulling his arm back. There were red marks on his forearm, and thankfully weren’t bleeding, but it still hurt a lot. He squeezed his notebook as hard as he could to redirect his adrenaline into something. He backed away from her, sharps breaths coming out of his mouth. “What was that for?” he cried out.

“I told you to GO AWAY!” she shouted. Mako’s temper started to rise.

“What gives you the right to go around BITING people when you’re in a bad mood?” he snarled, nearly lashing out. “I’m still a police officer, you know!”

“I don’t give a shit!” Asami snarled back.

“Well, I’ll get someone else to come back later and finish the questions!” Mako yelled. He picked up his pen and walked over to the doors. He straight up fire kicked them open, scorching them in the process. He stormed all the way to the front door, and put a hand on it. He looked at his reflection in the mirror just beside it and thought over what had just gone down. His forearm throbbed painfully. Asami really took care of her teeth.

 _Korra is pregnant, he reminded himself. Korra! But who could the father be?_ He went over all the men he knew to be close to her once again, but didn’t find any suitable options. He thought about Bolin being an option seriously for a minute, then dismissed it. He hadn’t spoken to Bolin ever since the fight in the hospital, but he knew that his brother wouldn’t cheat on Opal.

“I’ll wait 'til later to figure it out,” he said aloud to himself, and left the house. He hopped on his motorbike and started making his way down back to the station. He remembered the newspaper shoved in his belt, realising that he would have to face Beifong over it, given that he had backed the journalist to come in the first place.

“What’s Hazukk playing at?” Mako muttered, his words snatched by the wind as he sped out the Sato residence.

Asami rested on her elbows, no more tears available. “I’m never letting anyone get close to me ever again. Never." With that, she passed out from exhaustion. The elderly servant who let Mako in peeked his head in the open doorway, afraid of getting assaulted by whatever object was closest to her. He sighed when he saw her lying quietly on the floor, partially out of relief for his health, but mostly out of sympathy for her.

“Money can’t buy happiness,” he muttered, placing a blanket over her, before fetching a couple of younger servants to help carry her to bed.


	15. Always The Scapegoat

**Thank you so much for 300 hits, really does mean a lot! Enjoy**

Korra opened her eyes, her vision blurry for a moment before sharpening into razor focus. Her body was stiff, and she realised that she was in a pool, still fully clothed, the water just the right temperature. A spirit oasis, seemingly. She looked around the small pool and saw loads of random spirits in there relaxing, chatting peacefully. She budged a little bit, then stretched her arms above her head, not minding the drips. It was heavenly, and a broad smile etched itself on her face. She felt her bump, and revelled in the feeling of pure happiness in the fact that she wasn’t in pain in the slightest. She felt rejuvenated, the best she had felt since getting pregnant.

Her smile faded, as that memory brought on what she had done just before she fell unconscious. Guilt and regret were threatening to return, but she pushed it away so not to spoil the moment. That did bring up the question of where she was and why. She vaguely remembered the exhaustion of shutting the portal, so someone else must have brought her there. Her first thought went to the dragon spirit that she had brought to its nest years ago, but that was nowhere to be seen.

“Sorry,” she asked, diming the general chatter. “Who brought me here?”

“You’re awake!” one spirit rejoiced, and they all started surrounding her, comforting her. She smiled and returned their questions graciously. They made her feel at home, and didn’t bring up a problem they had with her unlike most.

“You’re not mad about me closing the portal?” she asked.

“Humans were getting far too comfortable strolling into our world,” a pear spirit said at the back, and there was a general murmur of agreement. “I don’t mind having another portal, but they need to learn their boundaries!”

Korra nodded as if that was why she did it, not in the mood for another argument. “Who brought me here?” she repeated, and she got a response from an unexpected source behind her.

“I couldn’t help but notice that you were using a dangerous amount of your power while in your condition,” a man said behind her, and Korra twisted around in an instant, getting out of the pool.

“Aang!” she cried happily, going up to and hugging him. “I thought I’d scared you away forever!” There was another Air Nomad beside Aang, but Korra didn’t recognise him.

“Katara was much worse, trust me,” Aang joked, and hugged her back. “It’s great to finally see you again Korra. I hope that you’ve sorted everything out now.”

Korra’s smile faded, and she looked down at her feet. She broke the hug, sat down and hugged her knees. She glued her lips tight to avoid her voice cracking, and stayed silent. “Not really,” she answered gloomily.

“This is a perfect place to open up, Korra,” Aang said gently. “I won’t judge you. I did many questionable things when I was growing up that had I not accepted, would’ve ate away at me for spirits know how long.”

Korra sighed, figuring there was no-one better to talk to, and slowly explained her whole situation. Accidentally getting pregnant, hiding it from everyone, breaking up with and effectively assaulting her girlfriend, using bloodbending to beat the Triple Threats, running away from the police. Aang took it all in, and related with how low he felt when he abandoned his people in their time of need.

“Aang had no malicious intent, and neither did you,” the other air nomad said. Korra found herself being optimistic for the first time in a long time while talking to Aang. Yes, she was pregnant and hadn’t told the father. But she was having a baby! That was great news in itself. She giggled at the thought of it, negativity finding no room in her mind now.

“What’s your name?” she asked the other man. “Were you two friends?”

“My name is Gyatso,” he replied, smiling gently. “I was great friends with Avatar Roku and Aang. You certainly seem like a nice person.”

“Thanks,” Korra said, beaming. The sudden flurry of compliments were very welcome. But a pressing question wouldn’t leave her head. She directed her attention back to Aang. “What was that about a dangerous amount of power in my condition you mentioned earlier?” Aang's smile faded, and his gaze became a serious one, locking onto Korra’s eyes. She switched on to full attention instinctively, and indicated that she was all ears.

“When I felt you closing the portal, I knew that you were in danger of overusing the Avatar State in your current condition. It would make sense that nobody close to you knows the consequences, since when the last time an Avatar was pregnant was hundreds of years ago.”

“Overusing the Avatar State?” Korra asked, frightened of what the implications could be. No-one had ever said she could over-use it, but it definitely sounded bad.

“Until you have given birth,” Aang continued, Korra hanging onto every word. “The Avatar State will be locked. The enormous flow of power can be fatal for the baby, and if you force it while pregnant anymore like you did by opening the portal, there is a very real chance of a miscarriage. It would be the same as trying to bond with Raava at any time other than Harmonic Convergence for the child, to put it simply. It only applies to women, as men can’t get pregnant, of course.”

Korra sat frozen to the spot, her heart skipping a beat. This baby had certainly created a lot of inconveniences in her life, but she wouldn’t give it up for the world. “If you’re joking, I need you tell me right now,” she said, leaving no chance for misunderstanding.

“I am dead serious,” Aang said. “Bending is not healthy either, but not nearly on the same level of the Avatar State. Go somewhere where you can take it easy for the reminder of your pregnancy. I don’t suppose you could move in with Mako? He is the father.”

“No, that’s not an option,” she said gloomily. Then an idea hit, which seemed painstakingly obvious. “That’s it, I’ll go home to the South Pole!”

“That’s a great idea,” Aang agreed.

“There is something else I feel we should mention,” Gyatso interjected, who’d been quiet for most of the conversation. Korra looked at him, wondering what else they had in store for her.

“We're not even sure if we’re right!” Aang argued. “There’s no point needlessly worrying her.”

“Tell me,” Korra requested, and Gyatso obliged, to Aang’s disappointment.

“The spirit of Raava is currently very… murky, at the minute,” Gyatso started, raising an eyebrow from Korra. “That is all we can make of it right now, but her balance has been unstable ever since you created a new spirit portal. Your emotions are having a much greater effect on her than any Avatar has ever before.”

“But it’s been over seven months since I created the new portal,” Korra said, not really getting what the man named Gyatso meant. “Shouldn’t any spiritual outburst from opening that have calmed down by now?”

“Raava has lived for over a million years,” Gyatso explained. “The time period you just mentioned is nothing compared to her lifespan. You have never been completely at peace with yourself in the time in between. We figure that until you have temporarily satisfied yourself to the full, the darkness cannot be erased to its complete extent. After that, it should probably not return unless you were to create yet another portal, but you evidently don’t have any intentions on that.”

“You can say that again,” Korra emphasized. “But can you narrow it down a little bit more? Will it pass after I give birth?”

“He simplified it down greatly there,” Aang said. “And no, it is not related to your pregnancy. This is entirely new. For the first time ever.”

“Ok,” Korra said, and got into some deep thought on who might be able to elaborate. “Is there any way I could talk to any of my other past Avatars? I thought the connection was gone but then you appeared not too long ago, and now here too.”

“Republic City and Air Temple Island were my home for most of my life,” Aang explained, “and my spirit has remained on there. It is very sentimental to me, and with the sudden flourish of spiritual energy, I was able to appear in front of you, even if only for a few minutes.”

“Can I talk to some of the other Avatars in the spirit world then?” Korra asked. “If you’re having a conversation with me right now, why can’t I speak to the others here?”

“I had very little choice, it was for your own safety,” Aang told her. “If you went to places like where Roku's Temple once stood or Kyoshi Island, then it is possible, maybe. They will not seek you out. I felt I had a personal responsibility as your predecessor to talk to you.”

They continued to talk for a little while longer, when a question struck Korra’s head. “I have a question,” Korra approached.

“What is it?” Aang replied.

“I have the ability to give it back, but… how do you take someone’s bending away?”

“What’s brought this on?” Aang asked.

“It’s such a powerful weapon, and I could stop so many problems before they even got off the ground with it,” Korra told him. “I know how you brought down Yakone with it.”

“Energybending is very risky, and you’re in no state to be playing around with that power,” Aang rejected her. “And besides, you don’t even meet the most important criteria.”

“Which is?” Korra pressed.

“You must be true to yourself, or else you will be corrupted, and your bending as the Avatar will be removed permanently,” Aang told her bluntly. “I mastered the technique, but i only used it as an absolute last resort, even with the Avatar State ahead of it. You have the ability deep inside you, but I cannot teach you it just yet.”

“Oh,” Korra said dejected. “And I’ve got this 'darkness' growing inside of me.”

“There is only one person in the entire world who has the potential to unlock and control this ability aside from you,” Aang revealed.

“Who, who, who?” she begged.

“My granddaughter Jinora,” Aang surprised Korra.

“Jinora…?” Korra said, surprised, although she was a very good candidate for anything spiritual.

“She is easily the most spiritual of my descendants, and the power is dormant within her after being passed down from me. She may discover it, or she may not. Tenzin, Kya and Bumi didn’t. It isn’t up to me, but if she seeks me out, I can teach her. She is fully capable of contacting me now. Although she won’t be capable of taking someone’s bending away, the raw power of the Avatar State is needed for that, and would probably kill her if she tried. I don’t think she would go doing that anyway though, so there’s no need to worry about her.”

Korra felt like protesting his decision, but decided against it. She had to leave bending alone for the next while anyway, according to Aang’s advice. She got up to leave.

“Leaving so soon?” Gyatso asked. “But we just got to know each other.”

“I appreciate all your help,” Korra said. “I really do. But I need some time to think about my next actions. Thanks, Aang, Gyatso. I hope we meet again.”

“Until next time,” Aang said cheerfully, and waved as Korra left the spirit oasis. Korra could be anywhere she wanted in the spirit world in an instant, of course, but she needed some time to muse for the next while, and wandering through the spirit world was the best place and time to do that. The water dripped off her slowly as the oasis slowly became a small dot in the distance.

  
Korra spent the next two days strolling around the spirit world, sorting her head out. She let her feet take her whatever direction she felt, and when she needed food or water, she had no problem finding it. Spirits kept her company whenever she needed it, and her belly pains no longer stressed her like they used to. She didn’t have to hide it now, and she could stop and take as much time as she wanted if she wasn’t feeling good. She had taken in Aang and his friend Gyatsos' advice, and was going to avoid any negativity she could. It was very vague, what they’d hinted at, but spirits were very complex and could drive someone like her insane. It was better to take their advice without questioning it. _Just keep it simple_ , she thought.

Finally, after two long days of walking, she stumbled upon someone that she could always rely on for a chat.

“Iroh!” she called out happily, and the former firebending master turned around from picking ingredients for his tea. A wide smile spread on his face as Korra wrapped him in a bear hug.

“It’s so good to see you again so soon Korra!” he greeted, returning her hug. “And it seems that someone else has come along too,” indicating to her bump.

“Yeah,” Korra confirmed happily. “For a while, I wasn’t sure about it but now I couldn’t be happier about it.”

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Iroh agreed. “Can you stop by for some tea? I would love to have you around for a chat.”

“Of course,” Korra accepted, and walked back with him to his table. It took what felt like an hour, but no-one really had a sense of time in the spirit world, apart from day and night. Korra was buzzing to sit down with Iroh and reminisce with him, but when they reached the table, her heart dropped. Her smile fell from her face and she got into a fighting stance, the top of her knuckles itching for a reason to blast to people who she’d hoped to never see again.

“Zaheer!” she snarled as the spirits around the table began to get edgier. “And your third eyed girlfriend!”

“Korra please, relax,” Iroh said, putting his hands on her shoulders to comfort her. “Your energy is more prevalent than ever with the new changes in the world.”

“You’re defending them?!” Korra asked, turning back to Iroh, shocked. “Do you know what they tried to do to me? I-“

“Korra, I beg you, try not to be so negative,” Iroh pleaded softly in his soothing old voice. “I know that you may have grudges with Zaheer and his wife, but you must remain calm. I am not proud of what I did as a general in the Fire Nation during the 100-Year-War, but I was given a chance at redemption, and that is what I am asking you to offer this couple while you are here.”

“His wife?” Korra repeated, looking at the two of them, sitting there calmly. “When did you two get married? And how are you even here? I saw you get killed with my own eyes.”

“As the descendant of the late Air Nation, P'li was always more spiritually connected than most,” Zaheer explained calmly, his hand on P'li's. “I would’ve thought you knew.”

“Air Nomad? How was I meant to know that?” Korra questioned, not dropping her hands.

“You were never taught about combustion benders?” P'li asked. “Honestly, what has come of the White Lotus?”

“I’m not talking to you,” Korra stated, keeping up her fists. “I don’t want to after everything you did to me.”

“We have many common traits, ourselves and Iroh,” Zaheer said. “The White Lotus that Iroh fought for has the same ideology as the Red Lotus. We’ve enjoyed our time talking to each other very much.”

“They cannot bend here,” Iroh reminded her, taking his hands off her shoulders as she dropped her guard. “Maybe they have something you are searching for.”

“What could I possibly have to learn from them?” Korra asked. “They put me through the worst emotional trauma of my life!”

“Have you ever heard the saying that you find something you didn’t know you were looking for in the spirit world?” Zaheer said. “I’ve heard that you’re currently not welcome in Republic City, and rumours about why.”

Korra glared at him, then looked at Iroh, seeking his opinion. He gestured to the conveniently empty seats across the two. Korra stood still for a second, then begrudgingly walked over and sat in it. She didn’t say anything, waiting for one of them to start the conversation. Zaheer did after a few moments.

“So, is it true that you took down an entire Triad using bloodbending, and yet the police chased you out?” he asked.

“Yes,” Korra replied gruffly.

“Why don’t you tell us about it?” P’li said.

No,” Korra rejected.

“We’re not asking you to open up, we just want to hear the real story,” Zaheer requested. “It’s very little to ask.”

After a few seconds hesitation, Korra relented. “Fine,” she said. She told them a detailed enough explanation of the raid on the Triads, and how she wasn’t able to go into the Avatar State because of her health, not specifying her 'illness' (even though she didn’t think of it like that). She didn't give them the chance to ask any questions, but they didn’t try to regardless. 

Korra went on to brush over her breakup nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal when really the thought of Asami ached Korra’s heart. P'li whistled suggestively at the mention of Korra having a girlfriend.

“Got a problem with that?” Korra challenged.

“Of course not,” P’li taunted. 

_Don’t rise to the bait. She’s only playing with you_ , Korra thought. She really couldn’t care less about P’li’s opinion on her sexuality. The Red Lotus had done considerably worse things to her in the past.

When she was done, Zaheer nodded, taking everything in. “I understand where you’re coming from,” he sympathised genuinely. “You were forced to defend yourself when surrounded by dozens of gang members with ill intentions. They were hardly obeying the law, now were they, but yet you’re the scapegoat.” Zaheer wasn’t just saying this to get her on board. He meant every word from the bottom of his heart.

“I know, it’s so backwards!” Korra agreed, rubbing her temples. “People have real short memories!”

“I was outcast for being a combustion bender,” P’li related.

“In terms of your girlfriend, it seems that you didn’t have full control over your ability. You didn’t know how to control it,” Zaheer said.

“Yes!” Korra nearly shouted. “It was an honest mistake!”

“Were you ever taught how to bloodbend?” he questioned.

“No,” Korra said. “Katara refused to teach me how.”

“We had a similar conversation when we first spoke,” Zaheer started. “You, as the Avatar, are being bound down by the public opinion. You achieve and become so much more.”

“Why are you offering me guidance now?” Korra asked sceptically. “If you had had your way, the Avatar cycle would be over now.”

“That’s only partially correct,” Zaheer informed her. He took a drink of the tea that was sitting in front of him and continued: “When we tried to kidnap you as a child, we did so with the intention of teaching you the arts of bending that the White Lotus forbid due to their archaic standards as well as what you already know. We would’ve taught you so much more than the knowledge and abilities you already possess. There was a change of plans after you disrespected our belief of the natural order. That’s why we tried to kill you.”

“Your ‘advanced’ teaching can’t be too important,” Korra responded, not yet buying his argument. “And I stopped all you.”

“You were reliant on the Metal Clan to kill my lover, and I would’ve done away with you had it not been for the other airbenders, and if you’ve been telling us the truth, you’ve severed those ties.” Korra fell quiet at this, but Zaheer kept on going; “Avatar Kyoshi was a powerful Avatar, so powerful that she nearly never used the Avatar State. She understood the need to be decisive and ruthless. She knew that she didn’t have to abide by the usual standards because no-one could touch her at her full power.

“She wasn’t always a popular figure, but she backed herself, and always came out better than her opponent. She didn’t need to rely on allies who would betray her at the first sign that she wasn’t perfect. No-one accepted her for having a girlfriend back then, but she believed in herself.”

“So what are you saying then? How is Avatar Kyoshi relevant to me?” Korra asked, frustrated by how good he was at dissecting her words and throwing them back at her. “I don’t intend on shoving my relationships in peoples' faces.”

“What I’m saying is that you need to use your authority as the Avatar to do what’s right when nobody else agrees with you because of the morality of it,” Zaheer told Korra, “and that includes learning to control bloodbending and exploring the other elements as well, like the ability to combustion bend.”

“I don’t need that!” Korra reiterated, her blood rising.

“Tell me all you know about combustion bending then,” P’li tested. “If you’re so sure, then you should be able to give me a lecture about it.”

“You can shoot fire from your mind,” Korra answered immediately. “And it’s got something to do with airbending.” She tried to think of something else, but that was all that came out.

“That’s it?” P’li asked.

“What else is there to know?” Korra said, trying to flip the question.

“So much,” P’li started. “As soon as I was discovered to have the potential, I was kidnapped and shipped away for a warlord in the Earth Kingdom from the age of eleven. That’s how powerful it can be.”

Korra pursed her lips together. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

“I don’t care what you think,” P’li continued. “There was a society in the Fire Nation that specialised in the mastery of firebending, and one of them moved to teach me for the six years I spent in the warlord's prison. Somewhere down my family line, there was an airbender who had moved to the fire nation, and his children with a firebender first discovered the power. I was one of many in my family who was cursed with this ability.

“I was a freak, no-one wanted me!” P’li said, her voice cracking a tiny bit. “I never had any friends up until I was seventeen! But then Zaheer noticed me getting whipped while he was exploring a mountain valley, and he rescued me when it couldn’t have been more inconvenient for him to do so.” Tears were brimming on the edge of her eyes, and she looked at her now-husband lovingly. It clearly wasn’t something they brought up much.

“But if you hate the power so much, why do you want me to learn it?” Korra asked, now curious.

“No-one is able to redirect it. I was tormented as a child by a lord, and soon enough you’ll find yourself facing leaders too. It is so much more powerful that regular firebending. You need to find a master to teach you. Go to Crescent Island when you’re ready. As both a master airbender and firebender, you should have no problem getting it down. The tattoo isn’t necessary, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to listen to you for another minute,” Korra told her, the atmosphere starting to turn hostile again. But she didn’t care. She stood up and imagined the old spirit portals. She felt herself slowly beginning to drift away despite being in her real body, but as she left, she heard Zaheer call out to her.

“You have more potential than any Avatar before Korra!” he called out. “Don’t let it rot listening to others' opinions!” Then she zipped away from the table, Zaheer's voice bounding around inside her head. She was furious with herself for even bothering to give them the time of day.

But deep down, she knew that she wasn’t totally against what they had told her, even if she refused to believe it.


	16. Back Home

Korra put her hands on her knees and took a breather. She couldn’t get Zaheer and P'li's voices out of her head. She was in front of the spirit portal leading to the South Pole, and its energy hummed quietly as it streamed upwards into the sky. She glanced over at the Tree of Time, and contemplated meditating in there. Maybe it would help clear her head.

“No, nothing spiritual for the next while,” she said to herself, remembering her talk with Aang and Gyatso. “But that hardly includes mediating?” 

Her tongue swished around her mouth as she thought of what the consequences of it could be. The time when she had turned into a blue giant, she had had Raava ripped out of her. And Tenzin had said something like the ancients used to meditate in there, so surely that had nothing to do with the Avatar State?

But she shoved all her thoughts aside as she saw the outline of someone coming through the portal. She cursed and ran around to the other side as they solidified.

A random water-tribe man walked through casually, reminding Korra that anyone could come in and out now. She couldn’t risk anyone noticing her as the news would’ve spread pretty fast. Maybe the media didn’t know the full story, but she was just better off unseen. She walked through the portal from the side she was hiding from, and ran behind the nearest tree when she emerged. Even though there was no official limit, people tended not to be queuing up to enter. Out of the entire population of the South, only a hundred or so people came through daily when she had been recuperating after her fight with Zaheer. It wasn’t a resort; it was common knowledge that the spirit world was full of dangers.

She walked around the back of the forest near the frozen tundra, taking a route no-one took casually, intent on finding her way back home as discreetly as possible. It was approaching night-time, and the streets were beginning to emit a dim glow. She took deep breaths and her body temperature rose to a comfortable level. This was barely even bending to her, and she felt no strain from it, so she saw no harm in it. Her arms and hands fell limp, soaking in the heat despite the fact that she only had a t-shirt on with no sleeves. She made her way around into the outskirts of the city, and stuck to the shadows the entire time while walking through. As she was going through a small alley in between two houses, she heard her name. She naturally stopped to listen. It was a radio broadcast:

“… _the police have neither confirmed nor denied the conspiracies that have been running riot in Republic City. The Sun journalist Hazukk Arahonov has released an article claiming that none other than Avatar Korra was bloodbending! Witnesses report that she blew a hole in the police headquarters and assaulted multiple officers in her attempt to escape capture. This is the same Avatar Korra that exposed Amon for being a bloodbender and rightly damned him for it, so the jury is still undecided._

 _“But Arahonov says that if she was afraid the authorities would follow her into the spirit world, then it can’t have been something small. The new portal here in Republic City was shut unexpectedly a few days ago by the Avatar after she created it roughly seven months from the present time. We have Hazukk Arahonov with us here now in the booth. Thanks for coming, Hazukk. What can you tell us about your claims?_ ”

Korra clenched her fists together and edged up to the open window, her head just below the rim. _How did he find out?_ she wondered.

“ _Thank you for having me_ ,” Hazukk's smug voice buzzed out, the radio quality poor. “ _I am reiterating that my report is 100% accurate. I was working with her while trying to bust a joint drug operation with Red Monsoon and the Agni Kai Triad, when the truck driver drove into a warehouse full of Triple Threats. I tried to defend us but was picked off as she hung back, hoping to avoid getting her hands dirty-“_

 _That snake!_ she thought _. That’s a complete lie! I was trying to help him and he kept on walking away from me!_

“… _I was rendered defenceless and tossed to the side, even if I don’t like to admit it. I watched as the Avatar first used lavabending to ward off her opponents. I think we all remember how Jaram Sau collapsed the Imapry Tower seventeen years ago when using lavabending as a weapon? Very reckless, who knows how much more damage she could’ve done to the city with her lavabending.”_

 _“You didn’t mention that in your article,”_ the reporter told Hazukk _. “Why are you only bringing it up now?”_

 _“It’s not illegal, despite the glaring public opinion that it’s too dangerous to let anyone play around with, so the editor told me to leave it out,”_ Hazukk answered _. “But when she was truly cornered, she used the Avatar State. This is perfectly fine; she was using it to protect our city.”_

“ _And then, according to the paper in front of me, she 'only used it for a few seconds to dazzle her opponents, when she decided that she could experiment on these people',”_ the reporter quoted.

 _“I didn’t understand why she had left the Avatar State,”_ Hazukk began _, “but a few moments later, I felt my body being incredibly unresponsive. It was extremely frightening, and I didn’t know what to think. But when I saw her being the only person out of the thirty odd other people in the room moving perfectly fine, I knew that it couldn’t be anything else other than bloodbending. To add to that, I felt the blood rising vertically to my head, and I passed out there on the spot._

_"When I woke up, there were police milling around, securing the shipment. I was forced to write a general article at the time and leave out those details because I feared for my safety. But now that she has fled the city, I know I now have substantial proof that she’s not the angel she portrays herself to be, but rather an authority figure abusing her power.”_

“ _That is an extraordinary claim,”_ the reporter said _, “and we hope dearly that it isn’t true-“_

 _“It was hard to open up on,”_ Hazukk interrupted _._

 _“-but let’s say that we have undeniable evidence for a moment, that we have multiple witnesses and photos as clear as day, hypothetically,”_ the reporter continued, ignoring Hazukk’s comment. _“Shouldn’t all the good things she’s done for our city in general maybe discount the fact that she used bloodbending this one time against a known criminal organisation, and would we risk bigger issues in general by having no Avatar to help us when we really need it?_ ”

“ _You have a good point there,”_ Hazukk appreciated _, “but how many problems does she create whenever she fixes an old one? She publicly kept the portals open after Harmonic Convergence when she was fully capable of closing them, which wrecked the economy of Republic City by leaving the vines there. She only came back to help the Earth Kingdom when her close friends in Zaofu were in danger of being taken over by Kuivera. According to the soldiers in her former army, she had Kuivera at her mercy but then simply just fell over. From what? The exhaustion of taking three long years off in a mansion in the South Pole!?”_

The reporter chuckled at the last sentence.

“ _But when she had to face Kuivera again, where does she do it? Right in our own city!”_ Hazukk slapped the table wherever he was to emphasize his point _. “There are probably a lot of people who have been forced to scavenge for their food, and their children’s food as well as a result of Kuivera’s invasion, listening to this. So, if you’re one of those many citizens of Republic City, I’d ask you to kindly consider my next few words._

_“When the nights are cold and you have nowhere to sleep, ask Avatar Korra to help you. When you are considering emigration for a better life, ask Avatar Korra to find you a new home. When our streets are plagued with criminals and pickpockets, who are unable to get by lawfully, ask Avatar Korra to use whatever means she sees fit to stop them from putting food on their plates. She may not be willing to face the consequences of when she breaks the law, but she is the divine ruler when others do, unquestionable in her actions. That’s what I really wanted to get across. That’s all I have to say. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me.”_

_“21-year-old Hazukk Arahonov with a brief but powerful message_ ,” the reporter announced, signalling the end of the interview, and started to talk about other issues.

Korra stayed there hunched silently. She was fuming at how he had portrayed that. He didn’t have the slightest clue about how hard it had been for her; she didn’t want most of the city to be blown in half!

“Can you shut the window there, dear, it’s getting a bit chilly,” Korra heard a man say, and scooted away into a bus shelter across the street. There was no one around at that very moment to see her, so she sat down and milled over what she had just heard.

 _He’s the one who reported me!_ she realised suddenly _. Who else could it have been? That snake doesn’t have one piece of gratitude. I’m going to smash his face in when I get back!_

But then she remembered that she wasn’t welcome back now. If that reporter had been telling the true story, then she would probably have a mob out for her head. She’d been tipping on the edge of popular and unpopular recently, and now she was definitely unpopular, to put it lightly. I had to stop them somehow, who know what the Triple Threats would’ve done with all that cocaine, she reasoned.

Then Zaheer's words from earlier hit her. She didn’t want to believe him, but that report there had proven how she wasn’t going to be able to stay on the public’s good side all the time. All the things she had ever done had been for the greater good, but she had no-one to help her back in the city now, apart from Bolin and maybe the airbenders, but they weren’t realistic options. She got up and continued on her way to the palace, which rose what seemed like miles above everything else in the city.

When she reached the front, she used waterbending to open up the wall and then cleanly shut it again, freezing it over with a tiny bit of difficulty. She hung to the shadows in the courtyard and the guards walked right by her on their patrol. She’d identified so many spots she could sneak in through being able to metalbend as well while recovering, but she never thought she would need to use them. Bloodbending was first made illegal in the Southern Tribe by Katara except for emergency medical operations, so Korra guessed that she might be unwelcome to the public. Her parents wouldn’t give her away for the world, but it was so much easier just to remain undetected.

She passed through walls with a little bit of trouble, but she wasn’t found out. There were very few guards on the inside of the palace, ironically. Ever since the Civil War had ended, there was only ever two or three break-ins due to her dad’s, Tonraq, general high public standing. She snuck her way to in front of their door after jogging up a few flights of stairs. There wasn't even anyone guarding the door, surprisingly. Korra thanked her lucky stars, however irregular they seemed, and knocked on the door. She heard no response, and then knocked again. A gruff order from what sounded like her dad called her in, thinking she was a servant. She took a deep breath.

“Hey, mom, dad,” Korra greeted tamely, as she opened the door and stood in the doorframe. Tonraq and Sennas' mouths dropped in the bed they had sat up in, and stayed like that for a moment, before Tonraq leaped out from the covers and pulled Korra right into his chest. He shut the door and practically suffocated his daughter with his bear hug, but Korra didn’t mind. Senna joined a second later, and they all just stayed there silently, not letting the moment go. Finally, when Korra’s lungs were about to burst, she released herself from their, mainly her dad’s, grasp.

“You don’t know how worried we were,” Senna told her, breathing rapidly. “What we've heard… is it really true? We won’t let them take you away, Korra.”

“The bloodbending part, yes,” Korra admitted sadly. “But I have more news to tell you. First of all, Asami and I broke up.”

“You broke up?” Tonraq repeated, and Korra nodded. “What did she do to you?”

Korra sighed, and walked over to the edge of the bed, landing in a heap. Her parents followed suit, sitting either side of her. She didn’t look at either of their eyes, just staring at the wall straight in front of her. She gulped, struggling to find the right words, and was also extremely tired now. It showed what a sorry case she was at the minute, the amount of effort she could put into bending already nearing its limit.

“Korra, we won’t judge you for whatever you’ve done,” her father reassured her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I don’t know how to say this,” Korra stammered, then decided to cut to the point. “But it’s going to be a shock either way. I’m pregnant.”

A moment of silence.

“You’re… you’re… what?” Tonraq asked, hoping his ears had deceived him.

“I’m pregnant,” Korra repeated, looking her dad dead in the eyes. He found no way to deny it, and fell silent, brooding over his next words. His wife didn’t though.

“Sweetie, that’s brilliant!” Senna congratulated her. “What did the dad say? How long have you been expecting?”

“Two months,” Korra responded. “And about the dad… it’s complicated.”

“What? Did he run away?” Tonraq asked, his voice suddenly starting to rise.

“No, dad, lower your voice,” she said, wanting to avoid any servants coming in. “I’ve was trying to think of a way to break it to him, but it was never convenient. I was going to a few days ago, but then I got chased out of Republic City. He’ll find out eventually though, I just don’t know how.”

“Do we know him?” her dad asked. “Maybe we can send a messenger to him secretly.”

“No,” Korra lied. “And I’d prefer if you stop asking about him. I’m not in the mood.”

“That’s perfectly fine, darling,” Senna said, understanding her daughter instantly, and then hesitated before her next sentence. “But we need to hear your full side of the story. About…”

“Bloodbending,” Korra finished for her. She had known that this conversation was coming and had planned her words out for about an hour. She confirmed what her parents had heard from the radio broadcasts, but when she got to Hazukk. Her mood changed considerably.

“It’s all that little cunt's fault,” she cursed. A little crack appeared in one of the walls. “He damned me the first real chance he got despite the fact that he was lucky to even come along in the first place and I saved his sorry ass! And he didn’t do jack-shit when it came to fighting. Of it weren’t for me, he’d probably have been killed by the Triple Threats right now!”

“Korra, please,” Tonraq said gently, although the tone didn’t suit his deep voice, now asking his daughter to quiet down. “We don’t want to let anyone know you’re here, and if you raise a fuss, you could collapse this place on your own. You know the extent of your power are better than anyone.”

“I’m sorry,” Korra apologised, her anger switching to sorrow immediately. “This is all my fault.”

“You’re still young, Korra, nothing goes exactly as planned at your age,” her father told her, pulling her into another hug. Her mother joined, and they stayed in each other’s embrace for three minutes, not saying anything. After that period, Senna spoke up:

“We didn’t plan on having you,” she revealed, “but life is full of surprises, and when we found out that I was pregnant all those years ago, we were so, so happy.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Tonraq added.

“Thanks,” Korra said, tearing up slightly. “But I don’t think this bloodbending problem is going to go away on its own. It came up first when I faced the Triple Threats, but now I think it’s going to be really hard to contain if I don’t learn how to control it.” Korra suddenly remembered how she had bloodbent the old man who had been homophobic to her after she had talked to Aang. But that had been during the rising sun. 

Am I that strong a waterbender? Korra thought. I didn’t feel Raava back then, but maybe I’m as strong as Tarrlok or Amon? 

She decided against telling her parents this, out of having no urgency to it. She hadn’t told them how she had unintentionally bloodbent Asami. They could both wait.

“Do you have any ideas as to who you’ll be learning it from?” her mom asked, even though she had the answer herself.

“Even if she wouldn’t teach me when I was younger, there’s only one waterbender who we can really trust to keep my presence hidden and teach me how to control bloodbending,” Korra said, both her parents obviously on the same wavelength, but she said it anyway. “Katara.”

“Are you sure she’ll teach you bloodbending?” Tonraq asked. “She didn’t rest until it was outlawed back in her younger days.”

“We’re not exactly blessed with options, and from what I’ve heard, she’s the closest thing to a reputable bloodbending master in the world,” Korra said. “I’ll wait a while until I see her, when maybe it’s died down a bit.”

“You’ll probably have to stay holed up in the attic until then,” Tonraq said. “I’ll have only my most trusted servants tend to you. They won’t say a word.”

“Where are you going to sleep tonight?” Senna asked. “You’re more than welcome to sleep with us if you want.”

“No thanks,” Korra declined. “I’ll sleep in the bathroom for tonight.”

“Are you sure?” her dad asked her again. “You’re pregnant, you need to be resting easy.”

“It’ll be fine,” Korra reassured them, and walked over to the bathroom en-suite. She locked the door after her and lay on the cold yellow towel that was hanging on the edge of the bath. Despite how uncomfortable she was, it took her no time to fall into another deep sleep.


	17. Regrets

Five days later

“Katara,” Korra whispered, poking her head around the door. The elderly woman looked behind to the woman just outside her room.

“Korra,” she said, although she wasn’t very surprised. “What brings you here?”

“Please, I need to talk to you for a minute,” Korra said, coming and sliding the doors shut. It was the same hut that Korra had been recovering in for over two years while she was crippled. She automatically got a sense of dread, as in recent times she'd only come there because of injury. Katara sighed, as if she knew what was about to happen.

“Did you get injured while in the spirit world?” Katara asked. Everyone in the South had heard the news by now. Luckily, there was no one left in her hut as it was seven in the evening and the sky was completely dark.

“No, but I really need to talk to you about something,” Korra said. “And I need you to keep me being here a secret. Please.”

“I figured you’d come to me sooner or later,” Katara said, sitting down in a chair. “Come, take a seat. I had a lot of difficulty controlling bloodbending when I was younger and when the news broke here, I thought it would be best to cancel my classes in case you arrived?”

“Really?!” Korra said, sitting in the chair beside her. “You cancelled all your classes? But won’t that draw suspicion to you then?”

“I’m an old lady,” she said. “They can think whatever they want, but nobody will question it. Now, how long have you been bloodbending?” Katara knew Korra wasn’t there for a friendly visit.

“Well, em… how long?” Korra repeated. She’d expected more difficulty in getting Katara to talk to her. “I’ve barely ever done it, only three times, and two of them were on accident.”

“Tell me the first time then,” Katara said gently, and put a reassuring hand on Korra’s shoulder. Korra smiled, extremely grateful to have Katara understand her.

“Well, it was when this guy was giving out to me and I was arguing back,” Korra said. “And then he made fun of me for having a girlfriend… and I just kinda snapped.”

“Girlfriend?” Katara repeated.

“Didn’t you know?” Korra asked, then realised she’d never gotten the chance to tell Katara. The old woman didn’t bother herself with gossip too much, so it made sense that she wouldn’t have known. “I guess I never told you, did I?”

“No,” Katara said, “but that’s wonderful news regardless! How are you two getting on then? What’s her name?”

“It’s… complicated,” Korra said. “I’ll get to that in a bit. But anyway, he was homophobic to me and then I just felt… really angry inside. I wanted to strangle him, and for a split second, I grabbed him with bloodbending unintentionally. I released him as soon as I realised what I was doing, but, I still did it. I don’t think he ever mentioned it to anyone ever again because it hasn’t come back to haunt me yet. Maybe he didn’t realise it was bloodbending himself.”

“I see,” Katara said. “That’s perfectly understandable, you were probably going through a lot of stress at the time and accidentally let it out on him. Is there anything else you need to tell me? I won’t judge you.”

“Yeah,” Korra said, remembering one major detail that was easy to overlook. “It was during the day. The sun wasn’t very strong but, it was definitely out.”

Katara gasped at this. She stared at Korra, bewildered. “You bloodbent someone on your first try during the day? That’s extraordinary!”

“It was only brief,” Korra said, not sure whether to be proud or ashamed at that comment.

“I reckon it must have been the Avatar State, or a blip of its power,” Katara said. “That’s the only way I could describe it.”

“Raava did speak to me, but… it didn’t feel like her,” Korra said, not able to elaborate any further than that. “Didn’t you used to have to calm Aang down when he was angry in the Avatar State before he mastered it?”

“Yes, he always had a soft spot for me,” Katara said pensively, thinking about the old days. “But you are in complete control of the Avatar State, aren’t you? Or has it been blocked again like before?”

“I can’t go into it at the minute, yeah,” Korra admitted. “But I have a good enough reason for that. Aang told me himself.”

“Aang told you himself?” Katara repeated, surprised. “But I thought that your connection was severed with your past lives.”

“Well, apparently with all the increased spiritual energy around, I can talk to them if I go to sentimental locations from their lives,” Korra explained.

“Could I talk to him?” she asked, now sitting up straight.

“I’m not sure,” Korra said. “He only came to me to warn me because he had a role as my predecessor. I think he wants to rest in peace, though. Sorry.”

“Oh,” Katara said, dejected, settling back into her seat. “But to warn you about what? Was it about your bloodbending getting out of hand?”

“No,” Korra said, and put on a cheesy smile. “It’s because I’m pregnant!” Katara blinked, then a huge, genuine smile broke out on her face.

“That’s wonderful news!” Katara exclaimed, overjoyed. “I couldn’t be happier for you!” She put a hand on Korra’s stomach, which was covered by a thick tunic, and left it there for a moment. “He’s going to be a bender alright.”

“That’s great!” Korra agreed, realising she hadn’t even thought of that possibility. She would love the baby all the same whether he/she were a bender or nonbender, but now another question popped up in her head. “What type of bender?” She didn’t want to ask if it would be a firebender in case that gave away the father. Katara was a lovely woman, but that information was only on a need-to-know basis.

“Hmmm,” Katara said, rubbing Korra’s stomach. “I can’t tell exactly, but I’m not getting any waterbender vibes. I could certainly be wrong though.”

“Thanks,” Korra said, smiling too. _I guess that only leaves one option, then_ , she thought.

“No problem,” Katara answered. “But now that you mention that you’re pregnant... I don’t mean to be nosey, but what about your girlfriend? Unless you had something organised…?”

Korra’s smile faded, finding no way of avoiding the question. “I got drunk one night, and I accidentally got with a guy. I’d take it all back if I could. I never meant to hurt her.”

“Korra, having a child is nothing to be ashamed of,” Katara reassured her former waterbending student.

“No, it’s not that, it’s just…” Korra started, and then put her trust in Katara's hands completely. “You probably know all about the second time I did bloodbent. I'm not proud of bloodbending the Triple Threats, but I had no choice. But the third time was about a week ago now.”

“Was it bad?” Katara asked gently, smiling all the time.

“So, so, so bad,” Korra emphasized, running her hands through her hair. “She found out about me being pregnant when I had hidden it for over two months during the full moon. Long story short, we had a huge fight. She started hitting me, which I deserved, but then… I bloodbent her instinctively.”

“That’s not your fault,” Katara said, trying to comfort her, but Korra didn't accept it.

“She tried to run away, but I stupidly reached out for her again,” Korra continued, her voice threatening to crack, “and I accidentally bloodbent her again. It wasn’t strong though, and she broke it herself through effort alone, even though she’s not a bender.”

“Neither of you meant what happened,” Katara said, “but you must accept that it has happened and you must move on.”

“Yeah,” Korra agreed, her voice going back to normal. “I only stopped trying to deny it when Aang told me that if I use the Avatar State while pregnant, that it could kill my baby.”

Katara’s eyes widened. “Oh dear, that’s very serious! Have you used since you’ve gotten pregnant?” she fretted.

“It’s locked itself away,” Korra said. “But by sealing the portal back in Republic City, I forced it to come out again. That’s when Aang had to step in.”

“It’s good that you know, anyway,” Katara said. “Is there anything else you need to get off your chest?”

“Yes,” Korra said, and took a deep breath, before continuing. “I want you to teach me how to bloodbend.”

Katara’s smile faded, and she was silent for a few moments before she spoke again. “Korra, I understand your struggles, but absolutely not.” This took Korra completely by surprise. Sure, Katara had always been strongly opposed to letting Korra learn the darker side of waterbending, but this was different.

“What do you mean?” Korra asked. “I need someone to teach me how to control it, and you’re the only legitimate teacher I can find and trust.”

“Korra, your mood swings will pass after you give birth,” Katara said. She sighed, about to tell Korra something she didn’t like sharing. In fact, she had only ever told Sokka. “I will admit that when I was pregnant with Bumi and Kya, I sometimes couldn’t control myself and would bloodbend Aang involuntarily.”

Korra held in a gasp. It would be hypocritical for her to be damning someone for what she was looking for help with at that very moment. But she’d always assumed that Katara had never bloodbent anyone apart from medical operations (like guiding poison or a shard of glass out of a patient’s body in a life or death situation). But that meant she had just been given even more a reason to follow through on getting taught it.

“What about Tenzin?” Korra asked first.

“I learnt to hold it in by Tenzin,” Katara explained.

“I don’t plan on waiting to find out by myself how to hold it in,” Korra said, determined to get her way.

“You’re pregnant, I won’t let you bend anyway,” Katara said. “It’s much too dangerous.”

“Why are you being so stingy about it,” Korra pressed. “I know that it’s not a nice side of bending, but I need you to be practical here! I’ve already got myself into enough trouble with it.”

“Because I won’t make the same mistake again!” Katara said abruptly, raising her voice slightly.

“The… same mistake?” Korra said, and Katara realised that she had said too much. She looked at the far wall to try and avoid eye contact, but it was too late. “You’ve taught someone before? Who? When?”

Katara didn’t say anything, but Korra wasn’t going to let up now. “WHO, Katara?” Korra demanded.

“I’ve said too much,” Katara muttered, and tried to get up to leave, but Korra stood up as well and blocked her path. “Korra, I’m not feeling-“

“You’re lying,” Korra said. “I know you are, with whatever you’re about to say.”

Katara looked around for anything that might excuse her, but found nothing. After a few moments, she sighed reluctantly, giving in. “Come to the dummy here.” Katara walked over slowly to the healing bath, which had a typical see-through medical dummy in it, with all the organs visible, and sat down in front of it.

“How is the dummy going to help me get better at bloodbending?” Korra asked, sitting down beside her. “I completed your healing course when I was twelve.”

“There’s so much to be careful about when bloodbending someone if it is to be used to benefit others,” Katara said. “When most bloodbenders, like Yakone used to, for example, they just grab hold of all the blood and keep it all in the same place at once. It is excruciatingly painful, as you would know. But as one man said to me, there’s always a positive side to every side of bending. Lavabending is very good at sealing rocks together if used correctly, and can prevent rockslides.”

“Then why are you trying to hold me back? You know I don’t mean anything bad with it,” Korra interrupted.

“Sometimes, your emotions can and have gotten the better of you and you’ve used it wrongly, like with your girlfriend,” Katara said with no restraint. Korra zipped her mouth shut and nulled any emotion coming up.

“I had one student who could’ve removed the poison entirely from your system who wasn’t a metalbender. He was a bloodbender, and stronger than me at my peak.”

“Who?” Korra asked, perking up. “Can he teach me?”

“No,” Katara stated, and then inhaled deeply. “This something I’ve been holding in for much too long, and up until now I thought I would go to my grave with it. But you dealt with the consequences while I sat back and stayed quiet.”

“What?” Korra said. “I’m sure it’s not too bad, whatever it is.”

“It’s worse than you can imagine,” Katara said, her eyes reflecting in the crystal-clear water. A thousand regrets and mistakes stared at her back.

“I taught Amon how to permanently remove someone’s bending.”

  
“WHAT?!” Korra asked. “YOU DID WHAT? How?”

“It all started roughly twenty years ago,” Katara said. “A very young man from the Northern Water Tribe emigrated to the South, named Noatok. He was a strong, righteous boy, and he always believed in helping all those around him.”

“NOATOK?” Korra repeated. “But- but, why? Why would you ever teach anyone that ability ever? And how did you even ever learn it?”

“Let me finish my story first, and then I’ll accept whatever you have to say about me,” Katara pleaded. She seemed suddenly very frail, and very remorseful. Korra relented a little bit, and closed her mouth. Katara continued;

“He was the youngest in my class, but easily stood out as a master the moment he set foot in my lessons. He picked up healing in a few days, but stopped and guided others who needed it. He could’ve ploughed on ahead, but believed that he couldn’t just race on ahead without those who needed help. It was strange, but he was quiet and determined to follow through with his ideas.

“He had arrived not too long after Aang had died, and I was still very down. But as I taught him, he was so much like Aang was when he was just a young boy out of the iceberg, except Noatok never backed away from the harsh realities of life. He showed me that I couldn’t stay down with the fact that Aang was gone, and it helped me put my grief to bed for good.”

“But Aang defeated the Fire Lord during Sozin's comet, didn’t he?” Korra interjected. “How brave do you have to be to do that?”

“That’s true but, Aang had always tried to find another way before violence,” Katara told Korra. “Not Noatok. Noatok would fight anyone and beat them if he was challenged. I never once saw anyone land a serious shot on him. He danced around attacks just like an airbender, and I felt like he was my own son, almost. Then, one fateful night, he outdid me as a healer.”

“Hardly!” Korra argued. “You’re the best healer in the world! How could someone like Amon, and someone so much younger than you, become better so quickly?”

“When the Red Lotus tried to kidnap you as a child, my brother Sokka, Zuko, your father and Tenzin faced them. Sokka and Zaheer fought each other, and Sokka managed to scar and defeat Zaheer in a one-on-one fight.” Korra’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of Zaheer, but she kept quiet. “But it wasn’t so cut-and-dry. Sokka was fatally poisoned by Zaheer. I was helpless to save my brother and I was given a final few minutes to spend with him. I was miserable. I had only lost Aang a few years before that, and now Sokka was leaving me as well.”

“I never knew that’s how he died,” Korra said, her lips pursed. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not done yet,” Katara informed Korra. “Noatok barged into the room and insisted that he could help. I was furious at him for intruding, but there was no harm in letting him try, so I let him have a shot. Noatok redirected the flow of blood out of Sokka's body and extracted all the poison, despite there being no full moon. Sokka was forced to retire from all active duty and bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. But he was alive, and it was a good standard of living! I was able to spend another seven years with him.” Katara's eyes started to tear up.

“I never thought Amon could be so…” Korra started, unable to find any words. It was a complete shock to her. She’d always imagined Amon in a purely evil context given her experiences with him, even when she had learnt of his story from Tarrlok. “…compassionate.”

“The man who saved my brother was not the same man who hid behind the mask,” Katara told Korra. “After that night, I trusted him just as well as Sokka, Suki, Toph or Zuko. But that was ultimately what caused us to fall out.”

“How did you learn to take someone’s bending away though?” Korra blurted out, absorbing every word. “And why would you ever teach someone that?!”

“I’m getting to that,” Katara said, her clothes now feeling heavier than before somehow. “I have to go back to when Bumi was only small, and Kya wasn’t born yet. Aang and I were attacked on Air Temple Island by a mad rogue Fire Nation general who had lost all of his power when the war ended. It was nearly twenty years after the war had ended, so we never expected it. He tried to kill us in our sleep.”

“That’s horrible!” Korra gasped.

“Yes,” Katara agreed. “But he was no match for Aang, and was defeated in no time. Aang took it very personally, and removed his bending as a warning to all. But this was the first time I ever saw Aang remove someone’s bending, and I felt a searing pressure with the blood around the firebender's chi points. I felt like kneeling under the pressure even though he was doing it to someone else. After that night, I kept on thinking about it, and I think I understood part of the process, although I never told Aang.

“What Aang did was create such friction in between the person’s circulatory system that the chi points, that they were sealed shut for the rest of their life. I said this to Noatok one day when we were having trouble holding down a firebender when we couldn’t do anything to numb his bending as our usual drugs weren’t working. Noatok, being the brilliant mind he was, slowly elaborated on it over the next few years. I never once knew about how strong a bloodbender he was until the night his progress went too far. Up until then, I thought he was just able to do a tiny bit of bloodbending.”

“Did you fight?” Korra asked.

“Yes,” Katara answered. “There was a man named Tso’kon, who extorted nonbenders in the South back about nine years ago now. Noatok was angry about this, but got himself into trouble when he had a row with the Chief of the Southern Force. They weren’t even acquainted, but Noatok demanded that the police track him down right up in their faces. The Chief danced around the question, and Noatok accused him of not caring for the nonbenders because he was a privileged waterbender.”

“That sounds more like Amon,” Korra said.

“Yes, this was the foundation of the Equalist Movement,” Katara explained. “He destroyed the police headquarters, and injured several officers. They didn’t land a single scratch on him.

“Noatok disappeared for a few weeks, and then the word that Tso’kon had been beaten up pretty badly spread like wildfire, so much so that he ran to the Earth Kingdom with his tail in between his legs. Rumour was that it was Noatok who did it, but I didn’t find out how Tso’kon was defeated until Noatok came to me.”

“I thought he had started the Equalist Movement by that point though,” Korra came in.

“Not at that very moment and time, but the foundations were put in place, as I said a minute ago,” Katara went on. “He came to me one night and claimed that he’d taken away Tso’kon’s waterbending. I said that he wasn’t nearly powerful enough to do such a thing, and he told me that he could bloodbend someone’s full body without the full moon. I called him crazy. He said that we could use this power that only the Avatar had possessed previously to bring equality to everyone everywhere. I demanded that he stop talking nonsense and to leave the South Pole at once before he was caught. We fought, but he easily overpowered me at my old age.”

“But he didn’t take your bending away,” Korra said. “Unless he didn’t do it properly?”

“No,” Katara answered. “He walked up to me while I was still under his control and asked me to join him. He genuinely believed I would help him, but he was badly mistaken. I summoned whatever strength I had left and broke out of his hold. Then, I grabbed his shoulder and violently sealed off all the chi flowing through it. I disabled his waterbending with his left arm, for good.”

“Now that I think of it, he always used his right thumb to touch someone’s forehead,” Korra said after a moment of thinking back to her few memories of the man behind the mask.

“I never saw it in person, but his left hand was and will be essentially a nonbender's for the rest of his life,” Katara claimed. “The damage is irreversible even with the best hundred healers in the world, apart from yourself. He ran from me, wounded in his eyes. I passed out from the exertion, so I couldn’t follow him.

“If you knew who Amon was, and what he was, why didn’t you tell anyone?” Korra questioned, almost interrogating her former waterbending teacher. “You could’ve stopped the whole problem at the root!”

“Firstly, I was too afraid to admit it,” Katara confessed, “but also, it would have been a very far fetched claim, and I wouldn’t have had any proof other than my own word. Then, when he got exposed, I didn’t want to push you away.” Katara started to cry, and Korra, despite how forceful she’d been just a few minutes ago, pulled the old lady in tightly. She knew what it was like to be the public’s scapegoat all too well.

“It’s okay,” she reassured Katara. “I know you only meant well.” Katara looked up and smiled at Korra, then wiped her tears away and sat up.

“Korra, I need you to understand that it is a burden more than anything most of the time,” Katara said after a minute. “I don’t want a repeat of what happened all those years ago. Noatok had a good will and looked out for the weak when he didn’t need to, but power corrupts, Korra, and it corrupted him deeply.”

“I’m not Amon,” Korra said. “And I’m the Avatar, I’m the most powerful bender in the world! I need you to teach me.”

“I'm sorry, but no.” Korra let go of Katara and stood up.

“You will!”

Katara looked sadly at the woman talking down to her. _Maybe it’s just a mood swing from being pregnant_ , she tried to reason, although she didn’t believe it herself.

“Please Korra,” Katara tried. “You took down Amon without bloodbending. You don’t need it.”

“It’s my duty as the Avatar to master all four elements, and bloodbending is a part of waterbending!” Korra argued. She bore holes through Katara’s head with her eyes.

“You won’t be able to do any bending until you’ve given birth,” Katara said. “And you’ll have to learn about every organ and blood vessel there is to know. It is way too stressful for a pregnant woman.”

“You can’t change my mind,” Korra declared, and after an icy silence, Katara relented with a heavy sigh, not having the energy to bicker with the young woman.

“Fine,” she said, and Korra’s eyes lit up. “But there is one non-negotiable condition.”

“What is it?” Korra asked warily, ready for any traps.

“I will never teach you how to remove a person’s bending. Ever.”

“That’s fine!” Korra agreed. Katara was disappointed and also a tiny bit relieved at how quickly Korra had agreed with her condition. On one hand, she wouldn’t be forcing her into teaching Korra, who could be hot-headed, how to remove a person’s bending. On the other hand, Katara had been forced into a corner.

“Just so you know, there’s no shame in quitting. At any time,” Katara offered.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Korra replied. “So can we start now?

“No,” Katara said. “Tomorrow. And you can only come on a Wednesday evening from now on.”

“Once a week?” Korra said, exasperated. “That’s nothing!”

“It’s plenty!” she snapped. “And you’re lucky to be here, you’re in no situation to be asking favours!”

“Fine,” Korra said, pouting. She walked over to the door she had come through and slid it open. “See you tomorrow,” she called enthusiastically, as if the atmosphere hadn’t been extremely hostile a few moments ago, and walked out. As she shut the door behind her, Katara closed her eyes.

“Forgive me,” she whispered, even though there was no one else in the room.

____________________________________________

**I am very nearly finished writing the whole fanfiction. If everything goes to schedule, which it should, then I'll be uploading 2-3 chapters everyday by next Saturday at the latest. Not every week, every day! It will be roughly around 220k words. Thanks again for all the love!**


	18. Alone

Mako waited in front of Dan’s, a popular bar, on a cold Saturday evening, the sky threatening to break out into a shower any minute. He felt the light drips play with him, but there was no way he could let Hazukk miss him. As Beifong had hammered into his head two weeks ago now, he had to have a talk with Hazukk.

***

_A few days had passed since Korra had ran off, and crime rates were soaring through the roof. Now with the word that Korra was gone, everyone was no longer bound to the law if the Avatar wasn’t there to stop them, or obey it herself._

_This was all because of Hazukk’s story. It spread like wildfire and now everyone wanted to speak to him, all the big TV stations, the top radio channels, everyone. Beifong had been forced to confirm it in a press conference before, because doing otherwise would be lying. Hazukk was rolling in the riches at the minute. Mako was the least popular person in the force because of how close he was to both Korra and Hazukk, when in truth, he hadn’t spent too much with Korra after that time at the wedding, and Hazukk had pissed him now. He’d genuinely trusted him, and Hazukk had just blared a secret he’d specifically said that he’d keep to himself across the front pages._

_Mako entered Beifong’s office and sat down in the chair._

_“I’m really putting my neck on the line for you, ya know that?” Beifong yelled at him. “Asami Sato won’t co-operate with us after you visited her, and Hazukk Arahonov has sent the city into chaos because of his article, after YOU vouched for him to come along! You’re on very thin ice, right after getting promoted!”_

_“But Hazukk was the one who tipped us off in the first place!” Mako replied, defending himself more than Hazukk, who he was fuming at._

_“This is why we don’t trust fucking journo’s!” Beifong shouted, and pounded her fist into the table. She glared at Mako again, not hiding her overwhelming stress. “Now listen here! I’m willing to give you one chance to redeem yourself.”_

_“What is it? I’ll do it!” Mako said eagerly._

_“I want you to go to Arahonov and give him a talk. We can’t let the media think we’re going soft! Let him know that we hate him, and the damn Sun, and that he’s never welcome back here! This is personal, Mako, he’s ruining YOUR reputation here and bagging all the cash for himself.”_

_“Don’t worry, I intended on doing it myself,” Mako said, and stood up. “I’ll wait until the weekend to talk to him so that he doesn’t suspect anything official.” He left the office with one thing on his mind only._

***

“There you are!” Hazukk exclaimed, walking up to Mako and clasping his shoulder, a broad smile on his face. He was dressed extraordinarily well for just a casual drink. Mako smiled weakly back, but didn’t greet Hazukk other than that.

“Wanna get a drink?” Mako offered.

“I’m afraid not, I’m invited to Quang’s Cuisine to give a talk tomorrow, so I can’t go getting smashed.” He finished his sentence with a huge laugh, like a man with all the confidence in the world.

“But you said-“ Mako started.

“Believe me, I had enough trouble sparing the time for you tonight,” Hazukk said seriously. “It’s been fairly chok-a-block recently.”

“You’re not doing too badly,” Mako noted, gesturing to the smart clothes his ‘friend’ was dressed up in. “All those interviews and that article really seem to have set you up nicely for the time being.”

“You bet!” Hazukk said, his voice travelling all across the quiet street, and put his arm around a tense Mako’s shoulder. Mako forced a smile, and played along as they walked along the road to nowhere in particular, barely holding back the urge to smack Hazukk’s teeth out.

“How did the boss react to your story?” Mako asked. “He must have been really been pleased to see it blow up like it did.”

“It was a massive relief, we had that one waiting for weeks!” Hazukk exclaimed. “As soon as I saw Korra blast a hole through the station, I knew that her time was up, and I got on the phone straight away to the boss. A thousand copies disappeared in less than an hour.”

“A thousand copies?” Mako repeated. “You had that many ready?”

“Of course we did,” Hazukk answered cockily, “but we sold several thousands more. Everyone wanted one for themselves, and that crook of an Avatar has finally been brought up on something we can prosecute her on! And none of it would’ve been possible without your help, buddy.”

“I’ve read it, and I interpreted that she saved you, no?” Mako mentioned. “Then why are you hanging her out to dry?”

“Nonsense,” Hazukk answered, waving his hand as if to brush it away. “I was in full control of my safety.”

“You said you got beaten to the side, and I also distinctly remember you being washed over the side back at the main fight against the waterbenders?” Hazukk removed his hand off of Mako’s shoulder, and looked at Mako more directly as they kept walking forward.

“That was only temporary, and I was just about to get out,” Hazukk deflected, “but she used all four elements to take out the rest of them. How am I meant to compete with that? Unless you know something that would have made her weaker?” It finally started drizzling, but Mako didn’t put his hood up. He subconsciously didn’t want Hazukk to one-up him on anything, so he didn’t do anything when small droplets started to dampen his hair. Hazukk didn’t bother mentioning it.

“No,” Mako responded. His mind cast back to the shock of learning that Korra was pregnant. He’d only told Beifong that, and she’d told him that that information was top-secret. He hadn’t even told Bolin, as they were still very distant after the fight a few months ago. Mako was slowly beginning to feel the slightest bit of contempt for Bolin. Why didn’t he just make it up already?

“I can always get you in on a bit of the cash flow,” Hazukk said slyly, and produced two hundred yuans casually out of his pocket. Mako glanced at them, and pushed them where they came from.

“I know nothing,” Mako reiterated. _We can’t let the Sun know that a pregnant woman embarrassed our force, even if that woman is the Avatar_. It started to come down a bit heavier now, but Hazukk politely bent the rain into a sphere above Mako’s head.

“If your mind changes later, just tell me,” Hazukk said.

“I will,” Mako replied, shutting off any further conversation on that with Hazukk. They walked a bit further and reached Avatar Korra Park.

Mako sighed at the sight of the statue of Korra. It was defaced in numerous places, and a head had recently been carved beneath her front foot. There was loads of red paint dried in, symbolising blood, and the plaque had been painted over with the word ‘SCUM’.

“Not pretty, is it?” Hazukk commented wryly. “It’d be better off gone altogether, don’t you think? I never liked the idea of worshipping her anyway, not when there are so many unspoken heroes of the city, like yourself.”

“What’s your fucking issue!?” Mako shouted suddenly. It caught Hazukk by surprise and soaked Mako to the skin by dropping all the water he had been gathering over his companion’s head. Mako wiped the dripping water from his eyes and glared at Hazukk. The rain really started to pour now. Nobody had been staying out late too much recently, and with the dark clouds earlier, it left just the two of them in a stand-off in front of the statue of Korra in the pissing rain

“I have no issue with Korra, I’m simply just doing my job,” he answered curtly. “Why are you defending her? She’s a known criminal and-“

“You’re a jealous little prick, aren’t you?” Mako accused Hazukk. “You were just trying to put her down the entire time! Don’t try to hide it, you wouldn’t be going to interview after interview if you didn’t want to!”

“That’s very high and mighty of you, isn’t it?” Hazukk challenged, putting his hood down, and returning the glare. “As soon as I make a bit of money after being kicked off the probending team, you just can’t let me be! You and I came from similar enough backgrounds, but you never let me away with anything.” His old accent started to creep back a bit. “You’re just bitter, that’s why you’ve never been able to hold down a proper friendship with anyone but your brother, and even now you’ve managed to fuck that up!”

“I’m trying to stand up for my friend Korra right now!” Mako argued. “I could’ve gone to one of you rats with countless stories about Korra, but not once did I ever consider it, because she was only ever trying her best. She won’t even feel safe around me now, because I introduced you to her! It’s all your fault that for all the lootings that are happening, and you’re making a fat profit off of it!”

“It’s all my fault?” Hazukk repeated, and Mako mentally slapped himself in the face. He’d just given Hazukk a prime opportunity to go to town on his argument. “I’m not a police officer who could be going after criminals right this very moment and time instead of complaining about it to a friend. It’s not my fault that you’re trying to pin it all on me when the biggest authority figure in the city apart from the Chief of Police bloodbends someone? Or is it?”

“What made you think for one second that we were ever friends?!” Mako asked. “And you released the article as soon as you saw Korra was being chased without any real evidence! It could’ve been something entirely different!”

“Like what?” Hazukk questioned, nearly catching Mako off guard.

“Nothing,” he replied gruffly.

“So there is something else?” Hazukk implied, leaning closer to Mako. Mako just shoved him away.

“You’re not getting any favours from me,” he growled, the rain drenching his clothes even more now.

“Really? Because if I remember correctly, who saved you from the Triple Threats when you were cornered in an alley, hmm?” Hazukk reminded him. “And who gave you the chance to kill the man who was responsible for your parents’ deaths?”

“That second part was pure coincidence,” Mako argued.

“Maybe it was,” Hazukk admitted, “but without me, he’d still be terrorising families just like your own was.”

“You wanted to run away!” Mako reminded him. His rage was showing on his face more and more by the minute.

“I did, but I listened to the authority on that one, and stayed.”

“Cut the lip-service!” Mako ordered. “You’re never welcome back at the station again. Ever. And if you ever disgrace one of my friends again, I’ll make you pay!”

“One of your friends? I don’t think you really have any left right now, do you?” Hazukk taunted, but caused Mako to stop and think. “Korra hasn’t talked to you in ages, and you’re in the very organisation trying to detain her right now. Asami Sato doesn’t really talk to you anymore, and Bolin has put you in the rear view mirror. During those lonely days in the hospital, _I_ was the only who visited you regularly.”

“That’s not true!” Mako said weakly. “They all just have a lot going on in their lives.”

“You said it to me yourself, that Asami visited you only once or twice,” Hazukk exposed him. “You told me that you didn’t want any women in your life, but the impression I get is the complete opposite. You’re too proud to say it aloud, but inside, you’re hurting bad. This is probably the first time you’ve gone out in ages. When was the last time you went out with someone other than me, huh?”

“I’ve been busy with work,” Mako mumbled, trying to avoid the question. “I only got promoted a couple of months back, so I can’t be resting on my laurels.”

“Bollocks!” Hazukk called him out. “You’re the spitting image of Lin Beifong, no friends, so you’re forced to pull rank to gain respect from your peers.”

“You don’t have a clue about my life!” Mako shouted. “I’ve been averaging six hours of sleep a night because of all the crimes skyrocketing around the city. And you know what, you’re right! I don’t have a social life compared to you! You get to stroll around like you’re big stuff now after one article that blew up! I bust my ass on a daily basis for the good people of Republic City because it’s just a part of my life, and I don’t have the luxury to brag about it!”

“Pulling rank,” Hazukk whistled, and that was the final straw for Mako. He was never good with words, but he had always been better at one thing than Hazukk. He brought his right hand back and powered a massive fireball at Hazukk, enough to swallow the entire waterbender’s body. Hazukk’s eyes widened and he narrowly shimmied out of the way as it flew by and crashed into the small bridge not too far from them.

“What was _THAT_ for?” Hazukk roared, but Mako didn’t answer him and quickly fired another two fireballs, albeit a lot smaller, at Hazukk. Hazukk, who was still off balance, whipped the water out of his snakeskin and the fireballs were sizzled out, but Hazukk was now stumbling backwards. Mako curled his foot around to Hazukk’s head-height and fire trailed out of his toes. Hazukk had no more water readily available and was forced to use his arms to protect his face as a fireball finally hit him. He let out a cry of pain as his coat sleeves were ruined and he fell heavily on his ass on the path.

“Shit,” Mako cursed, as he realised that Hazukk could now go to town with him in an allegation. He could lose his job now. “I didn’t mean that, Hazukk!” he called out as he started to jog over to help him up.

“The fuck you didn’t!” Hazukk shouted loudly, and threw off his coat onto the grass, ruining what was left of it. He waved his hand at Mako, and a disoriented volley of water made for the firebender, but it missed its mark. Mako stopped, and took a few steps back, unsure what to say. Hazukk did though. “I’ve been waiting years for this chance. Fight me, man-to-man!”

Hazukk didn’t wait for a response and picked up all the water that was gathering in large puddles on the ground. He also took a large amount from the river. It coiled around him like a snake, and then, he thrust both his hands forward. All the water formed a small wave and rushed to smother Mako. Mako jumped to his left away from the river, but his right leg got caught flailing behind by the wave. He tried to put weight on it as he spun around, but it didn’t support him and he fell on the soggy grass. He tried to scramble up, but slipped and fell back on his elbows. He squinted as the heavens really opened, barely able to make out Hazukk through the thick rain.

“Ok, now we’re even, I’m sorry,” Mako tried, but he didn’t even believe the apology himself.

“You probably won’t get another chance at this, Mako. Fight me,” Hazukk called out, and Mako gave in. Hazukk was at a huge advantage, with the weather, but he needed to do this.

Mako threw a fire hook at Hazukk. It lit up around them very nicely, but Hazukk just laughed. He held out his hand and clenched it shut. The rain around the fire sped to condense in it, and a second later, it had sizzled out.

“That’s the best you can do? My turn,” Hazukk declared, and four thin tendrils snaked out of the river, two waiting by both of his hands. With a harrumph, he fired them all at Mako at once. Mako rolled further away from the river, evading the first two, but was struck in the back by the second two. He moaned in pain as his face sunk into the mud, then spat the soggy dirt out.

“I’m not the liability I used to be,” Hazukk stated cockily, but Mako wasn’t quite as helpless as he was projecting to be. He turned quickly and slashed fire at Hazukk as fast as he could. Hazukk, who didn’t have any water immediately left to protect himself, helplessly watched it slam into his midriff. He _thumped_ backwards onto the ground, and lay there.

They both stayed down for a bit before Hazukk managed to push himself back up. He wore a fat grin on his face, and raised an eyebrow at his burnt shirt. Mako saw this and wheezed as he got to his feet and into a boxing stance.

“Looks like you’ll need some new clothes,” Mako panted.

“I’ve got plenty of money for that,” Hazukk replied, and more water curled around his body from the river. “You can have the first shot.”

“Whatever you say,” Mako said sarcastically, and threw a quick one-two of fireballs. He tried to follow it up using an upwards kick from his right leg, but it was still injured. It only rose half the way up and the resulting fire-kick spluttered out on its own. Hazukk smirked at this, then took more and more water out of the river. He was struggling to hold it up after a few seconds, so he quickly let it fly.

Dozens of volleys of water shot towards Mako. The firebender danced around as many of them as he could, and evaporated any that were too close for him to dodge. Hazukk saw this, and his smirk grew bigger despite the strain that the water was having on him. He watched as Mako kept on moving sideways, and froze the puddle underneath him as he stood on it.

Mako slipped and flailed his arms around as he tried to regain balance, and his fireball missed a watervolley coming straight for him. It connected, and Mako fell over. He nearly blacked out as he got winded, and groaned. Hazukk dropped whatever water he had left, and walked over to Mako triumphantly.

“It was stupid to fight me in the rain, you should’ve known that,” he taunted, and poked Mako in the chest.

“The police won’t believe you if you go to them,” Mako responded, barely able to breath, referring to a potential allegation of assault. “Go ahead, try.” Hazukk stood up to his full height and looked down on Mako, a towering figure now.

“That would be the straightforward thing to do, now wouldn’t it?” he said. “But you know what? I just don’t feel like it.”

“Bastard,” Mako snarled, shivering, unable to think of any well thought-out insult.

“I’m going to leave this with you and me, because I think it’ll hurt all the more. You attacked me first, it was just self-defence.” He leaned in to Mako’s ear. “And you can’t go saying this to anyone, because if I hear, I’ll confess in the papers. It doesn’t suit me to be getting into fights with the police very well right now, and you’ll lose your job.” He tapped Mako on the face.

With that, Hazukk walked away, out of the park, to wherever he felt like going, leaving his tattered coat behind in the rain. Mako stayed there silently as he prayed for the ground to swallow him up. His last proper friend he had remaining left him to decay for all he was worth, and Mako finally did black out, miserable, friendless and alone.


	19. A Leak

Mako trudged slowly back home in the direction of his apartment, having woke up some time later freezing cold in the mud. He’d forced himself to get up, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do. By some miracle, he didn’t have a cold or worse. He’d always been lucky in that regard when he was younger when he slept outside every night, while Bolin had gotten pretty sick sometimes. It was probably something to do with being a firebender.

Mako kept on rubbing at the dirt which was now caked into his clothes. The rain had stopped by the time he woke up, but the sewage drains were now flooded and a lot of paths were cut off by huge puddles. But Mako didn’t bother walking around them, such was his mood. He’d put on decent enough clothes earlier, but these were now for the bin. He might even give them to a homeless charity if he could get half of the dirt off, it was that bad. None of his outfit was ripped, and was thick enough, so it’d probably be greatly appreciated.

He rubbed his weary eyes as he again ran over the fight with Hazukk in his head. It had been a complete embarrassment. _What was I thinking, it was raining so badly,_ he thought _. I’m already on thin ice with Beifong too, this could be the final straw. If I get demoted, it’ll be a light punishment._

The limp in his leg had been gone by the time he woke up, although there was still a light bruise there when he put pressure on it. The spots Hazukk had hit on his back hadn’t damaged anything properly, but it’d probably be sore for the next while if anything touched them. 

_I really need to stop getting injured all the time,_ he thought _. I broke my arm with that giant spirit weapon against Kuivera, my rib against the Triple Threats a while ago, I got beat up against Shinoda and that waterbender very nearly cut me open. It’s not too long before I get my head messed up pretty badly if I’m not careful enough._

He passed a police recruitment poster with Chief Beifong’s face on it. It had been doodled on to give her a moustache, but he remembered that he had to give her a report. 

_I’ll go in on Monday. And I can’t let her know that I got into a fight with Hazukk. I’ll just say that we had an argument, and that he’s never coming back._

Mako caught a whiff of petrol, and noticed a streetlight bounce off a small trail going to the left up ahead. His curiosity got the better of him, and he followed the trail. The detour would only take him a few minutes extra to get home. He followed the trail through a few winding streets until it turned suddenly onto a larger street. His eyes followed the fuel down to the far end to where a white van was parked. It wasn’t too far from the bank that Mako got his money out of every week or so. He decided to go there, seeing as he needed money for food. That was, if they’d let him in, given his current appearance. He stopped suddenly just ten metres away from the main doors. He switched on, and ran back behind a post-box a little further back. 

Both the guards there were slumped down, presumably unconscious, since they didn’t have any obvious injuries on them. They were both big men too, so whoever took them out must have been very strong. Mako didn’t have much energy left himself, so he decided to wait there instead of rushing in. It was a pity he didn’t have his radio on him.

But just forty seconds later, the doors were kicked open from the inside. A cloud of thick grey gas expanded out of the entrance. Mako strained his eyes to see who was coming out, and he got his answer a few seconds later when seven people, all covered from head to toe in black, emerged from the gas in a huddle, protected by a bubble.

“Triple Threats,” Mako whispered to himself, hiding even more of his body behind the post-box. Now, he was watching with only one eye as the gas was blown away from them as an airbender expelled their protective shield in all directions. The other six people, who were fairly bigger than the airbender, had two gear bags each on their shoulders. 

The airbender ( _Ra, was it_?) turned around and blew all the gas back into the bank. The doors slammed shut when there was none left, and they all proceeded to sprint to the van which had been leaking a trail. No police sirens rang throughout the night as they all hopped in the back and drove off, none of them noticing the leak. The second they disappeared around the corner onto a smaller street, Mako sprinted to the nearest guard.

“Wake up!” he shouted, shaking him violently. “What happened, I’m a cop!” The airbender had done a very clean job of blowing all the gas back inside, thankfully, so Mako didn’t bother holding his breath. A few bystanders looked at him, strangely, unsure of what to make of what had just occurred.

“Stop shaking him like that,” an old woman near him said. He looked around and glared at her.

“Call the police, this bank’s just been robbed, for crying out loud!” he demanded, taking her aback. She just stood there, and looked as if she was about to give him a lecture for shouting at an old woman. He ground his teeth together in frustration. _It’s not that hard_ , he reasoned mentally. _Just call the police, why are some people so thick, you’re not always in charge!_

She just walked away petulantly, ignoring him, and Mako had to use a fair bit of his self-restraint, which had been missing earlier, not to shout at her more. He had no time to spare, but as he kept on shaking the guard, he didn’t wake up. 

Mako felt for a pulse just under the man’s chin, and breathed a breath of relief when he found it. They weren’t dead, as he’d anticipated. Mako then put his mind back on the job, and grabbed the key ring on the guard’s belt. He had been forced to memorise the standard car key when training to be a detective, and it was paying off now.

He clicked the key ring off of the man’s belt and went over to one of their cars parked thirty metres away. It was required that every BUR (Bank of the United Republic) bank had three pursuit vehicles of any kind outside the entrance for security reasons, but they were all second-hand hunks of junk. Mako didn’t have his motorbike handy though, so it’d have to do. The door clicked open easily and he twisted the key in the slot. Nothing happened.

“Come on,” Mako urged, and twisted it again, harder. It replied this time with a splutter, and he twisted it for a third time. The engine revved into life. “Bingo,” he mumbled.

Mako drove off after the trail as fast as he could without drawing attention to his car. If anyone looked inside, they’d probably assume that he stole it, but he doubted he’d get any hassle. He decided against turning on the headlights as it might illuminate the 'BUR’ trademark in between the headlights. It was so rusted at the minute that you had to go up close to make it out, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

  
After about an hour or so, Mako entered chartered Triple Threat territory. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get too far now in his borrowed car, so he traced back a few blocks and parked it inconspicuously. He locked the door and slowly made his way after the trail. He came up to a restaurant and recognised it as a hideout he’d spent time in as a kid. 

“Still holed up in the same places, huh?” he muttered. He made his way around the back until he came to a turn. He stopped, and peaked around.

He saw one man guarding the back door, and the van from earlier a little bit further on. It was pretty cramped, an apartment block covering the small alley in a shadow. The trail ended here with the van and the robbers seemed to have long since gone inside. The goon waiting out the back wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, more interested on his cigarette. He took a big fat long drag out of it, then groggily watched it dissipate into thin air. Mako set down his borrowed car keys in complete silence, and looked closer. He saw keys on the waist of the guard, which he assumed were the ones to the door he was leaning on. Mako took a deep breath.

The guard closed his eyes for a minute, and blew fire into his cold hands. He’d been put on guard duty for the second week in a row. He hated the job, and couldn’t wait-

His eyes flew open as a brick clunked onto his head. He toppled to the ground, but Mako wasn’t done yet. Mako shoved his hand over the guard’s mouth, and rammed the brick into his forehead. Then, Mako dropped the brick and dragged the guard over to the bins at the very end. He propped the man up against the wall and held a fire dagger to his throat. The gangster’s face was covered in blood, and he was panting loudly, spitting on Mako at the same time.

“Cut that out,” Mako snapped, a hell-bent expression on his face. “How many people are in there right now?”

There was no reply for a couple of seconds. “Listen pal, I don’t give two shits about your life, and I’ve got no qualms about slitting your throat right this very instant, so if you value your life, you’ll talk!”

The guard gulped. “The seven from earlier are the only ones right now! We’re leaving tomorrow anyway, and the money’s getting shipped off in a few days to the Fire Nation for crack! That’s all I know, honestly!” he blurted out, not taking much convincing to squeal.

“Thank you,” Mako said sarcastically, and then rammed his elbow into the guard’s temple. He crumpled onto the ground, and would have a bad concussion when he woke up, but that was no concern of Mako’s. 

The detective made a small lighter on his index finger and cut the keys off the man’s trousers. He tiptoed over to the door and tried four keys until the fifth one worked. Mako nudged the door open as quietly as he could and saw no-one immediately. He guessed that they’d be upstairs, so he shut it and crept into the kitchen. There was no one else there, as the man had said, and Mako passed by a clock. It read half twelve.

“Late enough,” he said to himself, and walked over to the vent. He climbed into the counter, opened it fully and pressed his ears against the cold metal. Voices drifted down into his earshot.

“…was clean earlier! It been expensive, that gas, but we bagged ourselves nearly double what we set out for!”

“We only needed five mill, yeah?” another voice replied. “We’ve got 750k to pay for the guy who gave us the gas and them blueprints, then one and a quarter mill extra to split between the rest of us. So it’s not nearly double, ya thick, Fadrh!”

“Would you ever shut yer hole for once?” the man called Fadrh replied. “If we weren’t working together, I’d crack your head open right now, no bother!”

“I’m ready right now,” the other man challenged him, and Mako heard chairs scraping as they got up. It was the logical thing to contact the force right now seeing as he heard them admit it to each other that they’d robbed the bank, but Mako needed to see if there was anything else he could pick up on.

“Cut it out, boys,” a feminine voice interrupted, and the others burst out laughing. Mako’s ears perked up even more. A woman in the Triple Threats? That was impossible, they were the most misogynistic group of men he’d ever met, and that was an understatement. There was no way they had a woman up there, being treated as an equal. But they wouldn’t listen to anyone lower than that.

“Oh look, Ru thinks she’s all big now since she’s been on one or two jobs,” the first man said. “Just because you’re the only airbender in the Triad doesn’t mean that we’ll go easy on you if you get too big for your boots”.

Mako racked his brain to the first time he had encountered the airbender, back when the jewellery shop had been raided. He’d just assumed at the time, given their shaved head, that the airbender had been a man and he had a more pressing issue of not getting blown up, but… it actually made a tiny bit of sense. He pictured the body and realised that it actually had been kind of curvy compared to a man. 

_And their face was more like a woman’s_ , he supposed. But he just couldn’t get his head around the fact that he Triple Threats had accepted a woman. He wasn’t misogynistic, some of the strongest people he knew were women (Korra, Lin Beifong, Asami), but he’d have never expected it from the Triple Threats in a million years.

“We don’t want to blow up the whole room, do we?” Ru said. Definitely a woman. “You lot have had fights before that end up causing the rest of us money! Just let it go!” More laughter.

“Ya know, maybe throw in a little favour for us all and we might reconsider,” the second man teased, emphasising the word ‘favour’.

“Go fuck yourselves!” Ru responded, and they all burst out laughing again. This continued for another hour pretty much, the woman called Ru being the butt of all their jokes and eventually she stopped trying to defend herself. Mako almost felt bad for her, but then remembered that she tried to kill him using explosives.

Finally, Ru had had enough and stormed out of the room. Mako, who had been dozing off, snapped alert and ran as quietly as he could to the door he had come in from. Ru took significantly longer to get down the stairs than it took Mako to gently open and shut the door. He bolted over to behind the bins and checked on the guard he had beaten up earlier.

He was still there, and there were a couple of nasty scabs on his face. He might have been infected, but Mako didn’t have the luxury of waiting to find out. All Mako took was one glance to confirm he wasn’t awake, then nearly fell over in getting back to the door. He leaned his back on it, pretending to be the guard, then felt it push against him a few seconds later as Ru came out. He kept his head down, to avoid making eye contact with her, but she didn’t even look at him. She just kept on her way. Mako let out a sigh of relief.

Mako stayed there for a minute before going after her. She was clearly new. It was the norm for new members to get the piss ripped out of them for a while before they gained respect (though she was even getting a lot more than Mako remembered happening to him). She didn’t remember what the guard looked like, and he definitely didn’t hear her try to unlock the door. He assumed that they’d split the money up later, because she only had a thin enough coat and baggy trousers on when she left, no bag.

Ru power-walked very quickly through the streets, and made it hard for Mako to stay on her trail without getting detected. There was no one else about at that time of morning, so Mako had to stay about fifty feet behind her and constantly duck into alleys as so not to be seen. He had a little bit more energy from the time he spent sitting down listening to them, and adrenaline was pumping through his veins. 

They were walking along a canal when suddenly, she started to air-jump from vine to vine to the top of a vine-ensnared building. If he’d had to climb up the vines, Mako would’ve lost her, but thankfully there was a ladder going up the side. He waited until she disappeared onto the roof, then scaled it at a careful pace as the rungs were slippery.

“Stop!” he called out as he hauled himself over the ledge and started to run to her. She was about to head inside a door at the top when she froze. She turned around slowly, and her heart skipped a beat when Mako stopped just ten metres away and pointed his finger at her.

“Who are you?” she questioned.

“My name doesn’t matter,” Mako said. “But what does matter is that I’m a detective from the Republic City Police and I’m detaining you for robbery.” He held out his badge for a moment, then put it back, never taking his eyes off of her. “I know where you live now too, so soon enough all your money will be returned to its rightful owner. Don’t make this harder on yourself! Come quietly!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, honestly!” Ru denied desperately. Then she peered at him, as the moonlight caught off of his eyes. Her mind flashed-back to her first job not too long ago. She’d dealt with the last cop by blowing him of his bike. They’d made eye-contact for a brief moment back then, and even though he was caked in dirt, they were the same amber pupils. Realisation dawned on her face.

“Remember me, huh?” Mako taunted, his fists up.

“How did you find us so soon?” Ru cried. She was very whiny for a Triple Threat. “We didn’t hear any police sirens, I thought it was a perfect getaway!”

“You’re in no position to be asking me questions!” Mako told her. “How I tracked you down is my business, and realistically, you should be serving a lot of time in jail for the crimes you’ve committed, but right now, I’m feeling lenient. If you tell me who your client is, when exactly the money’s leaving and where he got that gas you used to knock out the people in the bank, I’ll put in a good word for you. I promise.”

“Just hear me out for a minute,” she pleaded, dismissing how he already knew so much. “It’s not as cut and dried as it seems!”

“I don’t care,” Mako said, and fire lit up on the end of his knuckles. “I’ll give you one last chance. Take my offer or leave it. Otherwise I’ll have to bring you to the station by force!”

Ru didn’t reply, but instead tugged as hard as she could at the door handle. Unfortunately for her though, it was locked, despite how the building had clearly been abandoned years ago. She cursed and fumbled around for her keys.

“I gave you a chance!” Mako shouted, and closed the gap in between them to five metres. The last thing he wanted was a long range fight with an airbender.


	20. Hard Truths

Mako jumped, and brought his right heel up to head height. He brought it down full force to the ground, and slashed a column of fire at Ru. He did the same with his left foot in the same movement. Ru jumped away from the both awkwardly, getting singed.

“Let me explain!” she urged.

“You had your chance!” Mako repeated, and crouched down. He dragged his toes along the ground in Ru’s direction. A carpet of fire swept her off her feet, and she face-planted into the cold hard roof. She felt her nose crack on contact. Mako charged.

“Damn it!” Ru growled, and looked up. Mako was two steps away from her and about to body-slam her. She instantly knew that she wasn’t talking her way out of this, so she extended her arm at Mako, palm open. A rocket of air smashed into him from close range and he went flying back. He didn’t panic though, and blew fire against the direction he was going. He slowed down completely and landed his feet, not too far from the edge.

Mako steadied his breathing, then thrust his fist out at Ru. A flamethrower burst out of it, and Ru’s eyes widened. She took a sharp, painful breath through her bloody nose, and stared at it head on. She traced her hands in a circle in front of her and then shoved her palm through it, a similar motion she’d done a few moments ago. A needle of air pierced through the heart of the flamethrower just as it threatened to wash over her. The flame spun out harmlessly and Mako was forced to dive to the side as it very nearly hit and blew him off the edge.

“Where’d you learn that?” he called out. The first time they’d met, her motions were all those of a firebender’s, but now she was so much more elegant. It was like Korra used to airbend when she first unlocked it, before she learnt the proper forms.

Ru blinked. She certainly wasn’t expecting any praise from this cop. Not even anyone in the Triple Threats had acknowledged it. “I’ve been studying,” she replied. “You’re pretty good at fighting me. No-one’s been able to give me a proper run around ever since I realised I had airbending.”

“I dated one in the past,” Mako responded, and punched five huge fireballs at her, all too intense to spin out like she did before. She didn’t need to, however. She danced out of the way of every one of them, and jumped calmly over the last one. They all blew up parts of the roof. Mako started breathing a bit harder by the last one, and Ru spotted her opportunity.

She brought her hands in to her chest, then traced them in a wide arc to her left. A curling torrent of wind slammed into Mako and he crashed into a thick four-foot high vine which was sprawling around the rooftop. He felt the spot where Hazukk had struck him earlier in his back flare up again. He groaned in pain.

Mako’s vision swam as he saw Ru slice horizontally, vertically and then diagonally twice. Four slashes of air flew at him in one big attack and he forced himself onto one knee. He sent a powerful fire backhand at the air slashes. The flames and air met, and low _boom_ was heard all around the block as they exploded on impact. It had been much closer to Mako, and the shockwave of it nearly sent him flying over the edge. His arm scraped painfully against the gravel.

Ru started running closer to Mako, intent on finishing the job. She vaulted fifteen foot into the air and brought her heels together. She arrowed down directly at him, and shot a tunnel of air straight at him from her feet.

 _I’m done for if that hits me_ , Mako thought. He rolled forward out of the way just in time as it bore down on him. His hair blew back in the resulting ripple, but that was the worst of the impact he suffered from that attack. Ru landed where his chest had been half a second earlier.

“How?!” she shouted as he spun on her heel and blasted another torrent of air in his direction. Mako was too clever for it though, and stayed down as it flew harmlessly over his head.

“Never get too cocky,” Mako growled, and stood up to his full height. He sent a fire backhand at Ru, and followed it up with a fire uppercut. Ru swiped the backhand away, but her guard was drawn away and she caught the uppercut full on the chin. She stumbled away, wailing and clutching at her burnt chin, but Mako wasn’t done yet. He curled a low fire-kick around to her thigh, and when it connected, her knees bent so bad that she crumbled onto the ground.

“I’m not done yet!” he yelled, and Ru looked up to see Mako blaze an inferno at her. She panicked, and unleashed whatever power she had left to counter it, but the result was her being blown off the roof as Mako calmly parted the flames from the explosion.

Ru's fight-or-flight instincts kicked in as she fell, and blew as hard as she could at the ground. It cushioned nearly her entire fall, but she landed on her hands. She felt her right shoulder pop as it dislocated and her wrist snap as it broke on impact. She cried out as she landed in a heap, and stayed there, straddling her injured shoulder. Mako slid down on the vines and arrived in front of her a minute later. She tried to send one last air palm at him, but it missed by a long shot. 

Mako grabbed her by the collar and held her up to her full height. She was burnt a lot worse than Mako had intended, but it would hopefully all heal with time.

“Feeling like talking now?” he interrogated. “Or do you wanna go for round 2?”

“I’ve got nothing to tell you,” she said defiantly, but let out a gasp when Mako kneed her in the stomach. He made a fire dagger and held it up to her eyes.

“Trust me, if you think I’m bad, you’re sorely mistaken. We have people who will break you,” he threatened. “We can and will make you go insane, and beg to tell us everything you know so we stop.” Most of that was an exaggeration, but she didn’t know that. “It’ll be like nothing you’ve experienced before.”

“I’ve never been arrested before,” she jibed. “This is the first time.”

“What do you mean?” Mako asked, not buying what she said. “You’re running around with the Triple Threats, of course you’ve been arrested before at some point!”

“No, I only joined them a few months ago,” she told him.

“How old are you then?” he asked.

“Nineteen,” she answered, and Mako took in a sharp breath. He loosened his grip a little and she stood there awkwardly. She didn’t try to run.

“What’s a nineteen-year-old doing running around with the Triple Threats?” he demanded. He knew he was a hypocrite for saying that considering he and Bolin had done the same in the past, and at a much younger age, but he couldn’t tell her that, at least not at the minute.

“It’s not like I had any better alternatives!” she yelled suddenly, spitting in Mako’s face. “I was homeless for a year and a half, if I didn’t, I would’ve died sooner or later!”

Mako took a second to take this in. “Why were you homeless?” It struck a deep chord within him.

“My parents were pricks,” she said bitterly. “They wanted to force me into an arranged marriage, but I refused, and they went berserk. All my arranged husband wanted me for was the land my family owned, and the dowry. I ran to Republic City when I was seventeen.”

“What town or city are you from?” Mako asked, less aggressive now.

“We lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere,” she told him. “It took me two weeks to reach the main city in the Ayo State. I got a train here, hoping to start a new life.”

“But you sound like you’re from Republic City. And why didn’t you go to Air Temple Island when you arrived instead of living on the streets?” Mako asked. He let go completely, and gave her a yard of space. He had a pretty decent knack of telling when people were lying, and it sounded heartfelt. She wasn’t in any condition to go running away, anyway.

“I hadn’t discovered it by that point,” Ru explained. “And the accent helps me fit in better. One day, this guy in a hood about five months ago said I should come with him if I wanted to get paid. I’d already gone into prostitution by this point.”

“Spirits,” Mako said quietly. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I doubt it,” she sneered, but her voice started to crack up. Mako didn’t mention it though. It sounded like something she needed to talk about. “I told him downright that I was only going if he gave me money first, but he said that he could sense the airbender in me. I didn’t really care for my life at that point, so I just followed him.

“He showed me his real face when we got back to a hideout,” she went on, and cracked a smile despite her eyes watering up. “You should’ve heard me scream. But he showed me how to unlock my airbending. His name was Tokuga.”

“I thought so,” Mako said. “I figured that he was the one who let you in. Have the woman jokes been going on long?”

“Yes,” Ru admitted, now breathing heavily, struggling to contain herself. “But the pay has been really good. I had to shave my head though, to keep a lot of the guys away.”

“I thought that was an airbender thing,” Mako said.

“I used that excuse too, but…” she started crying and grabbed onto him tight with her one good arm and bawled into his chest. Mako stood there rigidly, not sure what to do. He was beating the living shit out of her a few minutes ago, and now she was crying into his chest. “They make me fun of me so much! It’s been constant abuse since day one!”

“Look…” he started, after a little while, “my brother and I were involved in with the Triple Threats when I was a kid too, much younger than you are right now,” he admitted. She looked up at him, but let him continue. “Our parents were killed when we were really young, and I went through a lot of the hardships that you just mentioned too. It’s a shit life, I know, and every day I remind myself to be grateful for where I am now. Stand up straight.” She wobbled away from him and stood to her full height, which was a head shorter than Mako.

“What are you going to do to me?” she asked miserably. Mako rubbed his eyes and sighed. He wasn’t great at therapy.

“Look,” he said. “I don’t have any reason to trust you right now other than out of the good of my own heart. So, I’m going to give you two options. One, you can tell me when and where the deal with your client is happening, and I let you walk away this one time. Your second option is that you stay quiet and let me take you to prison for numerous counts of assault, robbery and attempted murder. Your choice.”

“I never meant to kill anyone,” Ru protested.

“If you don’t choose, I’ll choose for you,” Mako threatened. She stayed quiet for a good few seconds. “Three, two, one-“

“Wait, I’ll talk,” she said glumly. “The deal is happening at the docks at 3AM, in about an hour or so. The client will be there, in the Valentine district. None of us know who he is or what he looks like, only Tokuga knows.”

“Thanks,” he said, and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to give you some advice now. You can take it or leave it, but it’s from the bottom of my heart. Get your injuries looked at and go to Air Temple Island. We won’t know each other after tonight, because we never met. This fight or conversation didn’t happen. Understood?”

Ru nodded, and looked him in the eyes again. “What’s your name, if you don’t mind telling me?”

“My name doesn’t matter,” Mako replied. “Just listen to what I said. Sorry for what I did to you.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said. “Goodbye.” He turned and started to walk away to the Valentine district, which was only fifteen minutes away at a quick pace. He heard her say ‘goodbye’ as well, and her steps echo further and further away from him as they walked in opposite directions. It went against everything he’d been taught as a policeman, but he saw a lot of Bolin in her. Afraid, confused, struggling to get by.

He rubbed his hands together, preparing himself for what would most likely be an ugly encounter.

* * *

Mako lay flat on the ground under an old jeep in a rusty rain shelter that threatened to collapse at any moment. He was cramped, trying his hardest not to close his eyes for too long, because there was a good chance he’d fall asleep if he did so. He kept on getting flashbacks to when he was waiting in the crate before they raided that cocaine shipment from the Agni Kai’s and the Red Monsoon. The silence was deafening, and every time a bird or rat moved something, or anything made a sound, he tensed up.

After what felt like days, Mako heard a vehicle rolling into the small clearing. There was no patrol on tonight, conveniently enough. He watched it park in the middle of the yard, headlights off, and then the engine shut off. No-one came out for a minute or two, before two men got out slowly from the back. Mako assumed that the driver was staying put in case they needed a quick getaway. One had a briefcase in his hands, and Mako made an educated guess that that was the money. His body started to ache even more now that he couldn’t budge. There were pebbles all around him, and the slightest noise would expose his hiding spot.

Finally, the mysterious client arrived, and on a speedboat no less. He carried a thick cylindrical tube as he made his way to the others. The driver of the car got out and met him angrily halfway. The other two caught up and gave out to the client for a minute for being at least half an hour later than them. Mako couldn’t tell the time from his position, but their voices travelled all across the yard. The client, who was dressed entirely in black, had his face covered by a hood. He didn’t raise his voice when making excuses for himself, so Mako couldn’t hear what he sounded like. After soaking up the abuse, he said something different. The Triple Threats nodded and pointed to his arm. He pulled back his coat sleeve, revealing a red forearm in the process.

 _He must have got burnt somehow_ , Mako thought. He watched as the client pulled back his sleeve the entire way and gestured to a small mark just above his armpit, probably proving he was their man. He covered his arm back up and handed the Triple Threats his tube. It was the perfect kind of container for paper, or classified documents.

 _Blueprints,_ Mako realised _. That was how they got into the bank so easily without a fuss. He’s wearing gloves so that he can’t get traced by his fingerprints._

His theory was confirmed a second later when one of the Triple Threats popped the tube open and took out a few sheets of thick blue paper. He looked over them and approved. He nodded to his friend with the briefcase and that was handed over. The client opened it up and flicked through the cash. He closed it, happy with what he saw, and started to walk back to his boat. The Triple Threats started to walk back to their car, the whole exchange only taking a few minutes.

 _Shit,_ Mako thought _. I need to get those papers now, I can’t possibly track them again in a car. I’ll have fuck all to tell the rest of the board when I get back otherwise._

Mako scooted out from under his hiding position, trying his hardest not to alert them, but also knowing time was of the essence. It took nearly a minute, which by that point the Triple Threats were almost at their car. He bounded up, and shot a fireball at the client, who was facing the other way. It collided and he fell over in a heap. The gangsters were about to shout something, but Mako ignored it and touched all four of his index and middle fingers together. They started to crackle as electricity clustered, and then he pointed at the car.

The lightning sped forward and zapped the hood. The vehicle exploded on impact, and the shockwave of the explosion threw the Triad members back several metres. The tube rolled very nicely in Mako’s direction and he sprinted towards it. He scooped it up off the ground and started to run away as fast as he could. But no longer had he taken five steps with the tube did a small rock pop up from the ground in front of him and trip him up. He landed heavily, and the tube split open, the blueprints rolling out. He noticed this and snatched them before they got away from him, shoving them in his waist.

The client got up and started to belt towards the speedboat. Mako saw this and pushed himself up. He started to gather electricity again, and the driver’s eyes widened. He aborted ship just in time as Mako zapped and exploded the speedboat. The fumes of both wreckages’ fires reached up into the air, and Mako now knew he just had to play for time long enough for the police to arrive.

The client watched in despair as his escape option was enveloped in flames. He turned around furiously to Mako, and dropped his case of money. He ran forward and got to within twelve metres of the detective. He bent the water out from a snakeskin hidden his coat and created a water whip. He snapped it at Mako, but Mako just countered it with a fire slash, and the water whip evaporated.

“Greasy rat!” the earthbender bellowed, and stomped on the ground. Two large rocks floated up, and he kicked them one after the other at Mako. Mako ducked under the first one and then met the second with a fire backhand. It smashed into pieces, and a small dust cloud appeared in front of Mako.

“Do something about it then!” he challenged, and the firebender of the group took his challenge up. He thrusts his fists towards Mako, and a full flamethrower blazed its way toward Mako. Mako didn’t see it until very late, so he could only match it with his own. They lit up the entire yard as Mako struggled to keep his end up. He stopped and dived out of the way after buying himself a little bit of space by pushing the other guy’s flamethrower back. It washed over the jeep not too far behind Mako, and he heard a third explosion in a minute. He tried to edge his way around a few crates, but the firebender cut that route off with a wall of fire.

The waterbender sent a volley of water aiming for Mako’s head, and he fire jaw-kicked vertically to cancel it out. He got vibes of his old probending days, but this was life-or-death. The earthbender tried to send a ripple through the ground to erupt at Mako’s feet, but Mako was prepared for that move and jumped just a spike rose out where his foot had been moments before.

The client was standing behind the trio and kept on lobbing long shots over the top, but none of them connected. He was more afraid of letting his identity get shown than fighting. Mako noticed this while dodging a fireball and block of earth at the same time. He timed his next attack carefully. He sidestepped until he had the Triple Threat waterbender and the client both lined up. He jumped over a water slice aiming for his heels, and roundhouse fire-kicked at them. The Triple Threat avoided it, but it kept on travelling and crackled into the client. He was thrown on his ass and his hood fell back, revealing his face. Mako’s breath caught in his throat.

“No,” he mumbled, and started to turn, to run away. Delaying the Triple Threats didn’t matter now. He just needed to get back to headquarters. This was vital. This was-

He gasped as he felt the four chi points on his left side get jabbed. His left arm fell limp, and his gaze shot to where someone had been half a second ago, but that was stupid. The man danced around behind Mako to his right side as he looked to his left and blocked Mako’s remaining four points. His right arm fell limp as well.

“Never count anyone out,” the driver whispered in Mako’s ear and placed a metal hand on his shoulder.

“AGH!” Mako cried as he was electrocuted. He slumped to the floor, but didn’t black out. He saw the other Triple Threats walking up to him. He closed his eyes, and accepted his fate. 

_I wish I’d sorted things out with Bolin, he_ regretted mentally _. And Asami too. I won’t get the chance now._

“Let’s make an example of this guy!” the earthbender demanded. “Let everyone know what happens when you mess with the Triple Threats!”

“Yeah!” one of his friends agreed. Mako couldn’t tell which one. He just hoped they didn’t take their time with it.

“Wait,” the man who Mako had uncovered said, and walked forward in front of Mako’s face. “I want to talk to him first. 10k to each of you directly after if you give me a couple minutes.

 _What? Why?_ Mako thought, opening his eyes.

“I didn’t expect to see you, old friend,” he patronised Mako, kneeling down.

“Hazukk!” Mako growled, his face mushed up against the ground, unable to move anything but his facial muscles. “What do you want with me?”

“Just a catch-up,” he answered in his old accent, and grabbed the blueprints out of Mako’s waist. He tossed them behind to the others without even looking. Mako tried to breath fire at Hazukk, but it barely got past his nose before it died out.

“Never one for throwing in the towel easily, were you?” he taunted.

“Why amn’t I dead?” Mako demanded.

“I don’t exactly plan on killing you,” Hazukk said, raising an objection from the men behind him. “20k to each of you if you let me have my way with him completely!” His driver had collected the briefcase and held it open for the others to see. It silenced them, and they all grabbed their money greedily. “You three can leave now. The cops will be here soon and I don’t think it suits any of us to be around when that happens.” He turned his attention back to Mako as they scampered off.

“How long have you been with the Triple Threats?” Mako asked. He hated giving Hazukk the satisfaction of giving in but the question was begging to be answered in his head.

“Before we bumped into each other,” Hazukk answered smugly. “You fell right into my trap.” Mako’s face dropped.

“Was that whole evening planned? And me getting followed as well by the Triple Threats as well before you ‘rescued’ me?!” Mako asked, horrified.

“A bit late to be figuring that one out now, don’t you think?” Hazukk answered indirectly.

“Why would you send your own members to jail?” Mako questioned. “Where’s the logic in that?!”

“We planned their escape beforehand, and then it coincided with breaking out all of the others because your friend Korra, the Avatar, imprisoned them,” Hazukk answered simply.

“So your story about her bloodbending was FAKE!?” he nearly shouted, although it left him out of breath.

“No,” Hazukk said truthfully. He sat down in the Lotus position. “The Triple Threats found out about the Red Monsoon and The Agni Kai’s big operation, before we met, and asked me if knew anyone on the force. Anyone I could dupe into bringing a journalist on a drug raid. Surely there couldn’t have anyone that stupid though. Or so they thought.”

“Cunt,” Mako insulted, grinding his teeth together.

“It was a long shot,” Hazukk continued, “but it worked! I knew you would go after Shinoda, you were always cursing him under your breath back in our probending days, and Bolin told me why. You should’ve seen my face when I learnt that you killed him! I was certain it would be the other way around! How could a detective be so gullible, yet so skilled at firebending?”

“Why did you bring Korra to the Triple Threats?” Mako asked, his body still paralysed.

“Tokuga said that I’d get half the money of whatever drugs I could bring back to him, and if at all possible, bring the Avatar. He planned to kill her, but she had other ideas, as you already know. We never expected bloodbending from the Avatar, someone so noble, but I pounced on the opportunity. After we broke Tokuga and all the forty-odd other Triple Threats out of jail, I wrote the article and waited for the perfect opportunity, and it arose.”

“That story about breaking your leg,” Mako remembered. “Was that even true?”

“No,” Hazukk laughed, rubbing salt into the wound. “And do you wanna know how I got the blueprints of so many different shops and banks?”

“How?” Mako played along. He was trying desperately to move, but hadn’t even budged an inch.

“They called me in for newspaper reviews,” Hazukk revealed, and burst out into even more laughter. His driver stood patiently behind him.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Mako questioned. “Where’s the benefit for you in not killing me right now? You know I’ll talk later.”

“To be honest, I’m quite grateful of you,” Hazukk confessed, but didn’t start laughing again. He seemed to actually mean it, although Mako wasn’t taking anything he said to heart anymore.

“How would you be grateful?” Mako asked.

“It’s very logical,” Hazukk told the helpless firebender. “Without you, none of this would have ever happened! I realistically wouldn’t have hit it big with Tokuga, which means I never would’ve exposed the Avatar, which means I wouldn’t be rolling in cash right this very minute. I was on my way to a new life in the Earth Kingdom just there, before you popped up!”

“Are you trying to blame it on me?” Mako asked, almost smiling at the sound of the question. Almost. “How am I responsible for everything you’ve done?”

“If you let a starving man into a room with your dinner, who’s fault is it that your food gets eaten? Yours, or the man just trying to get by?”

“THAT’S NOT EVEN COMPARABLE!” Mako shouted.

“Sure it isn’t,” Hazukk teased, and moved his mouth just above Mako’s ear. “But you should know this. It’s all your fault. Everything. The crimes rampaging Republic City, the reason you and Bolin don’t talk anymore, the Avatar being forced out. All because of you. Whenever a crisis next strikes Republic City and you need the Avatar, know that all the lives lost or displaced are on your hands. That’s all.”

He looked back at his man holding the case and stood up. “Zap him, Matt. Time to leave this shithole. I’ll pay you as soon as we get to the next checkpoint. I’ve got a car just around the corner. It’s not ideal, but it’ll have to do.”

“Suits me,” the man called Matt said, and walked over to Mako. He placed the metal hand on Mako’s arm and electrocuted him into a deep, deep sleep.


	21. Proud

“And that’s why you have to be extra careful when directing blood through the large intes-“

“AGGH!” Korra suddenly yelped. She fell down on her side, clutching her swollen stomach. It was a large bump now, and anyone would recognise that she was pregnant. She had already finished her third trimester, what she felt was a few days ago.

“Are you alright?” Katara said, grabbing Korra’s hand. “Do you feel it coming?” Just as that was said, a midwife who’d spent the last three weeks with Korra burst into the room.

“I’m here!” Yama exclaimed. “I’ll get the bed ready!”

Korra slowed her breathing with the help of Katara, but after about a minute she was fine again. “Sorry, Yama, not just yet. It’ll be very soon though, I just don’t know when.” 

Yama sighed, getting slightly impatient over the number of false calls over the last few days. She’d originally spent the first month tending to Korra’s every need in the attic of the palace, but the palace started to be searched practically every fortnight from the Republic City Police after that. They were forced to move Korra into a secret hideout in the mountains, far away from the city. It took half an hour to reach on a ski-bike, and the tracks were covered up almost instantly by the constant snowfall.

“It’s fine,” Yama said, and walked back into her room. Katara helped Korra push herself up and helped her back into her own bedroom. It was spartan, as anything bright or decorative was set on fire by Korra in her fits. There was a bed, and a dim oil lamp was attached to the wall. That was it.

Korra rapped her fingers in boredom against the bedframe when she lay down. She’d spent six months holed up in this bunker. There were five rooms; a kitchen, her room, a bathroom, Yama’s room and the room Korra spent the majority of her time in, the ‘classroom’, as she’d come to call it. It was a room which was sprawling with countless posters and diagrams of the human body. In the centre, there was a pool dug into the ground which a see-through mannequin was always floating in.

She had avoided bending whenever possible, and anytime she did was when she was emotional. Katara had come down once a week as promised, and Korra had genuinely learnt so much while hidden away about bloodbending. It had so much potential medically, but Katara had made it clear she was only teaching Korra because she had to.

Katara had stayed with Korra on full moons while all other servants left her for their own safety. She emphasized with Korra greatly, and Korra hadn’t bloodbent anyone since that awful night with Asami, thanks to Katara’s help. Korra had kept true to her promise and not brought the question of how to remove someone’s bending using bloodbending.

But little did Katara know, that Korra reckoned that she had a fair idea on how to go about it. She vividly remembered the awful feeling of how Amon blocked hers, and in all those lonely hours with nothing to do she’d recognised the various points on the diagrams where she’d felt the sudden cut-off of chi. Before Yama had decided to stay with Korra, a servant only came once every four days with food, so she just did her own thing. 

There were a lot of questions still left to be answered, and she never intended on using bloodbending again, but… She just had to explore the idea. She was the Avatar, she reasoned, and she couldn’t leave any stone unturned.

 _It has nothing to do with Zaheer_ , she kept on saying to herself.

She sighed, rubbing her temples. She wished she could talk to at least one of her past lives or something. An Avatar that had been in her position, preferably, who had been ostracized by the public. She’d never talked to anyone other than Aang, apart from the time she’d learnt about Wan when she lost her memory, and while he was great, he never really experienced how it meant to be an enemy of the public like she had.

There was no way she was going to bloodbend involuntarily now though. Absolutely no way. She didn’t know when she would be able to apologize to Asami, or even tell Mako the news, but it was one thing she knew for certain.

 _Then why are you learning so much about it_? The annoying voice in her head kept nagging.

She ignored the question and walked over to the oil lamp. She threw a cloth over it, which blacked out almost all of the light. She made her way back her bed and slowly sat down, before gently resting her head on the pillow. She hadn’t slept on her side ever since the bump got noticeable, as she kept on getting stomach pains. She couldn’t really ask her mom for advice because everyone suspected that her parents knew where she was, and if they were spotted going on a random trip into the middle of nowhere, it would raise questions, according to the servants.

“I can’t wait to meet you,” she whispered to her belly. “Any day now.” She closed her eyes. After a few minutes, she fell asleep in the near pitch-black room. Her body clock had been done away with ages ago, and she just slept whenever the mood hit her. Which was a lot, recently.

  
Korra woke up screaming. Yama, who’d been resting quietly, nearly got a concussion from falling off of her bed. She kicked Korra’s door open, which was never locked, and knelt down beside the Avatar.

“Korra, what’s wrong?” she said loudly but clearly. “Is the baby kicking again?”

“NO!” Korra bellowed, unintentionally, but she couldn’t control herself. “It’s coming! The baby’s coming!” Katara had left, seemingly.

“Are you sure?” Yama asked. There’d already been two or three episodes like this.

“YES! 100% SURE!” Korra screamed, and a sense of nervousness and relief washed over Yama. It was finally here. Three weeks of being cooped up with an irritable woman was coming to its climax. She grabbed the bowl from under the bed and held Korra’s hand as she writhed in her bed. Small cracks started to appear in the walls, which were made of rock, obviously.

“Please, Korra, stop bending, just squeeze all your frustration into my hand,” Yama said, afraid that the room might collapse on top of them. Korra looked at Yama weakly, and nodded. Yama got into position and gritted her teeth as Korra practically crushed her hand. Thankfully, Korra hadn’t been exercising while locked away, so her arms were a fair bit skinnier than before she was pregnant.

Korra screeched, wanting the pain to stop so badly. It was nearly more painful than the time she was poisoned, which was saying something. It felt like someone was trying to cut open the inside of her womb with a hot butter knife as recklessly as possible. She tried to push as hard as she could, but every convulsion felt like a disc of earth landed in the middle of her spine, and rolled painfully all the way down to her lower back, crushing everything in its path. When it got to the bottom of her spine, it was double the initial pain. Every. Single. Convulsion. So every three seconds.

If the Avatar State hadn’t locked itself away, she would probably have caused a deep-sea volcanic eruption. That’s genuinely what it felt like.

“Just focus on the sound of my voice,” someone told her through the mist. _Who was that? Was it-_

Korra shook in agony and all coherent thought went out the window. All she could focus on was the pain.

 _Just put me out of my misery,_ she thought after only a few minutes _. Anything has to be better than this._

“Put me out of my misery! Please!” Korra wailed. She wanted to black out, but couldn’t. Still though, she pushed. She was going purely on her instincts by this point, and the only way they saw fit was to plough through the pain. It felt as though her insides were being ripped up like paper. Her face was red from exertion and her eyes were flowing with tears. After what felt like hours, she asked how long it had been.

“Just over fifteen minutes,” Yama replied.

“Fif… teeh… min-“ Korra tried to repeat, but cut her own sentence off with what felt like her thousandth cry of gut-wrenching pain.

“Korra, I know it’s tough, but I need you to hang in there,” Yama said. Korra gave Yama a look of pure contempt, but Yama ignored it. She gotten that look from women in labour dozens of times before, and would probably get it dozens of times in the future. She had also managed to slip Korra’s hand onto the bedframe, as her hand was white from the pressure. She still kept her hand around there though, so Korra didn’t notice anything from the corner of her eye.

Then, after two and a half hours of cursing Yama every name under the sun and more, Korra felt like a bucket of cold water was poured down her spine. She mustered whatever energy she had left, and her bellow echoed louder than any other scream before as she pushed. She felt a searing pain and a huge loss of weight. Her eyes glowed with the light of the Avatar State, and she let her shoulders sink into the mattress. 

A sound she hadn’t heard for a long time, ever since the Equalists had invaded Air Temple Island, crept into her ears. The Avatar State faded, and Korra looked up meekly. A new-born baby crying.

“Beautiful, Korra. Just beautiful,” Yama said. She was cradling a small baby in her hands. She looked up and gave Korra a heartfelt smile. Korra reached out wordlessly, and Yama gently placed the child into its mother’s arms. Korra stared breathlessly in awe. 

It was a girl. All the pain of the last two hours vanished in an instant. She certainly had the skin tone of her father, but as soon as the baby opened her eyes and peered at Korra with sapphire-like eyes, Korra started to cry tears of joy. This baby was definitely hers. Pure love and pride flooded through her heart, and although there were nagging thoughts about Mako, she pushed them into the back of her mind for the time being.

“Have you thought of a name?” Yama asked, and Korra looked up. She had thought about this so much before, and hadn’t fully decided yet, but now she only had one thought in her mind.

“Come closer,” Korra said, and Yama knelt down beside Korra. Korra whispered her decision into Yama’s ear. It was too precious to be throwing around. It was her baby’s name!

“That’s a wonderful decision,” Yama agreed, and Korra turned her attention back to her baby, humming softly and rocking her as gently as she could.

Back at the Southern Palace, Tonraq’s eyes widened as a beam of very dark blue light, but still undeniably the light of the Avatar State, shot up into the sky from the Southern Temple. “Senna!” he shouted, and his wife burst into the room. Their eyes met, and they wasted no time in getting to their ski-bike outside. They tore through the snow, intent on one thing and one thing only.

Back in Republic City, Mako raised an eyebrow from the top of the rooftop of the station as a beam of light shot up from Air Temple Island. He took another swig from his rum container, something he’d been coming up there to do every day during work hours and what he did most nights at home. It had started roughly four months ago. He didn’t really go drinking out, just at home. He didn’t invite anyone over with him. They were too busy with work, apparently, so he’d stopped asking a while ago.

“I’ll drink to whatever that is,” he said, downing the rest of the container, not giving the light a second thought. He just felt so tired recently, so he didn’t give any thought to something that didn’t affect him. It didn’t cross into his mind that it could have anything to do with the Avatar State, or even Korra.


	22. On The Run

_A month and a half later_

“Shhh,” Korra whispered to her little girl, who’d just woken up crying to the sound of Korra opening the door. She’d moved back to her old home, the one she’d lived in before the Red Lotus tried to kidnap her as a kid. She barely went outside now, but at least she was back to full health. She could use all her bending at her former strength, which was great for day-to-day life. 

But she never let her baby out of her sight. It was stressful dealing with her all the time, but even more stressful when Korra didn’t know where she was for one minute. Her mom had helped her out so much more than Korra could ever repay her for, even though she couldn’t come by too often. Korra didn’t mind though. As long as she had her child, nothing could bother her. Naga lay contently in the corner, asleep.

Mako leaned glumly over the side of the airship. He was headed on another trip to the South to look for Korra. He’d been on most by this point, which was over ten, but they’d all been completely fruitless. If it weren’t for Asami funding all of the United Force’s searches, or witch-hunts, for a better name, they’d have given up long ago, but she would not let up. Mako made up with Asami shortly after he found out about Hazukk, but he still hadn’t talked to Bolin. He didn’t even know where Bolin was!

 _I could find out if I wanted to_ , he thought, but pushed it as far to the back of his mind as possible. He was naturally a little grumpy from the long flight, but also because he was banned from drinking by Beifong, and she’d come on this trip because there was a solid lead, apparently.

“Damn Northerners,” he muttered. “Why can’t they just let us pass through their portal? It’s not like we wanted ours to be shut.” The United Forces or Republic City Police weren’t allowed to go through the Northern Portal to search in the South anymore, which was logical, as it had become a bit of a habit. But it took so much longer to travel to the South Pole because of it.

“Hey Mako,” one of the soldiers called. Mako turned and tilted his head. _What was his name? It was pronounced something like ‘ack…’_

“What?” he snapped. Ahmed swallowed a retort against the man he’d been sharing a room with for the past three days.

“Just wanted to let you know that we’ll be arriving at the Southern Tribe really soon. We have to dock a fair bit away from the ports because apparently some journalist saw her with his own eyes, and we want the element of surprise.”

“Are you sure it’s not Hazukk?!” Mako demanded.

“Would you ever stop talking about Hazukk, for crying out loud!” Colao, another detective from the Republic City Police, interjected a small distance away. “Ever since he supposedly ran off over seven months ago, with a shit ton of money according to you, you’ve just been all moody. Brighten up for a change!”

“Fuck off!” Mako replied, and looked back over the edge, his back to everyone.

“Here look, Mako, I know we don’t know each other too well but-“

“Stay out my life!” Mako said. “Piss off back to your sandbender colonies or wherever you and your buddies come from!”

“My parents were sandbenders,” Ahmed replied, his patience finally wearing out. “Mako, why are you being such a prick? I’ve tried my best to be nice to you while we share a room, but you don’t even remember my name!”

“We’ll never see each other again after a few days,” Mako told him dryly, not even looking at Ahmed. Ahmed gave up and walked away, through with being nice. Mako leaned harder over the railing, staring at the black water miles below.

 _Just a quick jump, and it’ll all be over in a flash. That’s not too bad, is it_? he thought, and the sad thing was that he genuinely meant it. _I’ll wait another bit longer_ , he decided, and pushed himself up. He went downstairs to the dorms. He was going to catch a little bit of shut-eye before what would probably be another fruitless search.

Korra sighed contently, rocking back and forth on her chair. She intended on spending the rest of the night there, peacefully, no-one to bother her. She had enough food to last her and her child a week, and even though she felt like going outside to look at the stars, it was far too early. She would have to wait until 4am to head down through the tunnel directly under her bed and walk a mile after that, and she wasn’t in the mood. She’d actually been getting parenting lessons from Katara instead of bloodbending, funnily-

Three loud knocks on the front door crudely interrupted her thoughts. She nearly fell sideways off her chair, but caught herself.

“Korra, it’s mom, open up!” Senna called urgently.

Korra got up and put a hand on the ground. She trusted her mom with her life, of course, but she just needed to make sure that nobody else was watching. She could sense her mom’s heartrate pounding, alone, so she rushed open to the door and unlocked it. She stood back as Senna squeezed in and shut it firmly behind her. She was panting hard.

“Why are you shouting my name like that?” Korra asked, although it wasn’t with any malice, as her mother looked deathly scared.

“The United Forces are here, Korra,” she blurted out, “and they’re coming right this way. You need to leave now!”

Korra’s eyes widened and her eyes shot over to the calm baby in her crib. “We’ll leave right now.”

“No, Korra,” Senna said, putting her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. “I know it’s heart-breaking, but if she wakes up, the likelihood is that she’ll start crying. We’ve gone through this before, I’ll say that the baby’s mine.”

Korra just stared wordlessly at her mom, wanting to say no so bad. They had gone over a plan, in case the United Forces came looking, when Korra had insisted on leaving the bunker, but she’d never really thought that they would need it. She hated to even think of the possibility that she would need to abandon her daughter. Finally, she found something to say;

“How do you know?” she asked pointlessly.

“One of the guards spotted them coming in from the West. They’re all in Future Industries airships.”

“Asami,” Korra muttered guilty. “Are you sure dad can’t stop their army marching in? I know that he was forced into signing that agreement, but surely you can keep them at bay a little longer?” Korra tried, even though she knew what the answer would be.

“Sweetheart, we’ve already told you that most of our troops won’t defend you against a search party coming in. We don’t have much time.”

Korra started crying, and Senna hugged her. “I won’t let her out of my sight, I promise.” Korra broke the embrace after a few seconds, and petted Naga, who had woken up now.

“Protect her for me, girl,” she whispered to her lifelong friend, and Naga whined, sensing what was happening. She walked over to the light of her life. “I love you, more than anything else in the world,” Korra said, and placed a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “And I always will, sweetheart.”

Korra grabbed the black cloak which was always hung on the door leading into her bedroom, and put it on. She walked up to her bed, and used earthbending to slide it over to the right. She opened the small rock hatch and jumped into the pitch-black hole. She landed on her feet with a soft _thud_ , and slid both the hatch and the bed back into place. She started to walk through the tunnel, collapsing everything behind her every few steps for the first three-hundred metres, to avoid any chance of her being tracked immediately. But when she got closer to the exit, she heard voices at the end.

“How?” Korra mumbled, extinguishing her flame. She wanted to investigate who was at the end, as it came up in literally the middle of nowhere, but she knew that she didn’t have that luxury. Instead, she dug her fingers into the ice to her left, and pulled them in opposite directions. A small slit, barely big enough for her to fit in, opened, and she hopped inside. She repeated the action for another few yards, then sealed it clean shut behind her. She didn’t light any fire in the palm of her hand either, and that would take up a lot of oxygen. She could supposedly recycle oxygen like a tree, being an airbender, but she hadn’t actually ever tried that trick before.

After forty-five minutes of tunnelling, she broke out, and the sudden bright lights from the night-time city caused her to clamp her eyelids shut. She was to the east of the city, away from where the airships were, according to her mom. She couldn’t actually see them but assumed that they were hidden behind a mountain range. It angered her that anyone could just waltz in nowadays, but she couldn’t go raising her opinion on the topic, seeing as it was all because of her. She didn’t even bother going to the spirit portal, they always guarded it whenever they showed up for a search.

Korra kept to the shadows as she travelled around the outskirts of the city. She saw a few squads patrolling through the streets, but evaded them easily. She also noticed the glares at them from the surrounding pedestrians. She’d heard that a lot of people were sick of them coming in whenever they wanted, but couldn’t say it aloud for fear of seeming to defend bloodbending. Korra could take the patrols on with one hand tied behind her back, but knew how stupid openly confronting ten or so would be. So she stayed undetected until she reached the official exit of the east of the city, which was guarded by more patrols.

She cursed, although she’d figured as much would happen. She noticed a lot of waterbenders with their hands to the ice. They took turns in sensing for any underground vibrations, like earthbenders. Korra realised that she couldn’t burrow her way out of this one. There was only one thing for it, which was to hopefully slip by them.

Korra went up to the gate in the temporary ice wall that was set up. She waited in line for a few minutes. She saw that all the guards were looking at was the person’s face, and that people were being moved on every few seconds. She kept her hood up the entire time she was waiting, always looking at the ground. She tucked her long hair into the hem of her shirt and didn’t make a sound. Finally, when it was her turn, she walked up confidently, keeping her head down.

“Sorry Ma’am, we just need to see-“

The wall to the man’s far right cracked loudly. A number of startled shouts filled the air, before it crumpled away completely. More cracks started to appear in the ground below the line of people waiting, and panic erupted through the air. Everyone started to surge forward, and Korra silently went with them, smiling to herself.

Soldiers rushed to where the wall had fallen down, and the poor guard at the gate checking everyone, who was a clerk more than anything, could do nothing to stop the hoards. The cracks in the ground looked threatening and looked like they were going to continue expanding, but they were actually only a few feet deep and barely wide enough to stick your leg in.

Korra intended on just running away as far as she could, but she soon got a hard example of how hard it was to run somewhere while looking straight down at your feet. She collided with a small boy, only about eight years old maybe, and they both tumbled onto the snow. The initial panic died down as people got away from the cracks, and the United Forces started rounding people up again. Korra cursed as she got a mouthful of snow.

“Watch where you’re going, young lady!” the mother of the boy said. “You just kneed my poor little Johnny in the back!”

“I’m fine, mom,” the boy protested, pushing away his mother away, embarrassed by the commotion. “I barely even felt it.”

“Sorry,” Korra mumbled, getting up and trying to jog away from the soldiers before they forced her into a check. Her face hadn’t been revealed, thankfully.

“At least look him in the eye when you apologize!” the mother demanded, grabbing Korra’s cloak and pulling her hood back. Korra’s heart skipped a beat as her face was put in full view, and hauled around to face this woman.

“Who do you think…” the mother started, then trailed off. She stared speechlessly at the tight-lipped Korra.

“No way!” her boy piped up. “It’s the Avatar! Can you show me how to bloodbend?”

Korra just stood there, frozen to the spot as every pair of eyeballs narrowed down onto her. All the commotion died down, and you could hear a pin drop as everyone took it in. The soldiers, who’d been expecting another boring, routine lookout, stood there flabbergasted. After a tense seven seconds of time standing still, a general spoke up;

“Avatar Korra, you are under arrest on the accusation of multiple counts of bloodbending from the Triple Threats and your ex-girlfriend Asami Sato, resisting arrest previously, and injuring countless police officers in your escape. Come quietly, or else we will use our full force to detain you.”

Korra just stood there as a small circle of people edged away from her. She prepared to jump out of the first person’s attempt at tackling her, but everyone just stood quietly. She glanced around at the normal citizens’ eyes, and recognised a feeling she knew all too well.

Fear.

“I’ll do it myself then!” the general growled, and the ice underneath him erupted into a small pillar. He went flying, and ice formed around his fists. He started to fall directly in Korra’s direction, intent on beating her into submission even though she technically hadn’t said anything yet.

“I’m sorry,” Korra said aloud, and looked up directly at the man coming at her. Her open palm shot out at him, and a whirlwind met the general. He spun around in circle as he shot backwards into his troops. He landed in a heap.

“What are you waiting for!?” he shouted, glaring at his troops. “Apprehend her! It’s not a full moon, we wouldn’t have looked for a bloodbender tonight if it was!”

The soldiers broke their deadlock and charged forward through the civilians. Fire erupted from Korra’s feet, and she flew out of what two seconds later became a mosh pit. She bounded through the crowd, not able to hold her rockets for very long, using air to cushion her landings before leaping off again. She discarded her cloak, and soon passed out the furthest ordinary person from the crowd.

Korra formed tentacles with water in her arms as she landed in front of seven soldiers, all firebenders, seemingly. She melted the ice in front of her feet and raised up a wall of water. All of their fire-punches and fire-kicks sizzled out, and the wall rose to stand ten foot high. She shot her tentacles at two waterbenders who were coming at her from both sides, knocking them out with the ferocity of her attack. She pushed the wall forward, and it crashed down on the firebenders, who were helpless to do anything about it. She froze them in place, and all their heads stuck out like moles. She continued on her way.

She leapt towards the official border, where the city limits ended and it was just the wilderness from there on out. Her pace picked up as she got more hopeful, but that hope faded when what looked like nearly a hundred waterbenders from the United Forces suddenly appeared out of well covered trenches. Korea skidded to a halt. The waterbenders got into lines within seconds, and each brought up a litre of water in their hands.

“Oh shit,” Korra murmured.

“Fire!” a voice sounded out.

Hundreds of volleys of water were pelted at Korra, each waterbender firing an attack every three seconds. Korra took a deep breath, and calmed herself. She sucked the water into her as they all sped towards her and started spinning, her arms outstretched. 

The water diverted to around her body and followed the instructions of her hands. It twirled around her, and suddenly a fat water-snake was forming, coiling around the young woman, the circumference ten metres thick. Korra didn’t rise up onto the top of it, but let it surround her as she absorbed every attack, turning it into her own shield. It got harder and harder to hold every second, and so soon enough she froze it all.

An ice dome, expanding forty yards in every direction, protected Korra as water and now ice rattled off of it. She heard chinks as the ice was quickly being beaten away, a metre and a half per second. She looked through the ice, and saw a number of firebenders come up and started blazing the ice with flamethrowers. She felt faint; the United Forces were closing in on all sides. It was a good thing that the waterbenders were so far away, or else they’d have melted her shield instantly.

“Think, Korra, think!” she urged herself, her voice echoing off the small space she had to herself. “I won’t be able to cross the border without the help of the Avatar State. But I can’t go attacking them with that, I’ll be no better than a terrorist or Unalok! UGGGHH!” She held her head in her hands and looked back at the direction she’d come. It was infuriating, but she had no time to think of a better alternative.

Korra faced the sea, and punched the ice. A large crack formed. She got into the horse stance, and pointed her fingers at the crack, her knuckles touching. It slowly started to budge opened as Korra forced the ice apart. A couple of firebenders noticed this and stopped melting the ice to run around. But Korra budged the ice apart with plenty of room for her to fit through before they got around, and exploded out of her enclosure with firebending.

Korra blew a torrent of wind at the nearby firebenders as they tried to get close, knocking them all away. She stayed close to the ground, but didn’t let up with her rockets, and glided along to the sea-line. A couple of water-volleys landed near her, but none actually hit her as she dove into the icy sea. Her plan was to get a speed boat and maybe draw-

She bent her body violently to avoid a disc of earth. She looked to where it had come from, and used the currents to redirect three more. There was a submarine, and when she peered closer, she spotted a waterbender holding all the water from rushing into a slot while an earthbender fired discs from the inside.

There were four slots in the submarine overall, and Korra had to stop for a moment. She splayed her hands out, and focused in on the slots, which were made of metal. She clenched her hands and all four openings crunched shut at once. She continued on her way to the dock, only coming up for air twice more while she repeated the action with five more subs. She’d get a speedboat, and draw the United Forces away.

“Ahhh,” Korra said as she took in a welcome breath of air, when she came up in the dock, and rubbed her eyes. But her heart sank like a rock when she saw what was waiting for her.

Three hundred soldiers from the United Forces, including some metalbenders from the Republic City Police, stood ready to blast at her with everything they had in their arsenal. She saw four airships coming for her in the distance, and even more soldiers congregating from the city. She spotted Lin Beifong almost instantly, and her heart did a flip when she spotted Mako right beside her. She looked away, and spotted General Iroh II on a makeshift podium with a microphone in his hand.

This was exactly what she’d wanted to avoid.


	23. Revealed

“Avatar Korra, this isn’t a game!" Iroh’s voice sounded out from his microphone, reaching every set of ears in the vicinity. “You can’t fight us all. Surrender now, or else we will aim to kill!” Korra kept a poker face on, but on the inside, she felt like curling into a ball. She just wanted to wake up. Like it was all a bad dream.

“But it isn’t,” she said quietly. “I’ve dug myself into this hole, and I have to claw my way out of it now.”

“I can’t hear you!” Iroh broadcasted. “This is your final warning!”

Korra sighed, and rose up majestically on a water-tornado. She prepared to reach down inside her soul for Raava. She needed every last drop of power for this one. “You know I won’t do that, General Iroh! Don’t make me use the Avatar State!”

“It’s regretful that it’s come to this,” his voice buzzed around the dock. He looked down to his left, and beckoned for something. Another ice pillar rose up, and Korra’s breathing stopped for a moment. Parts of the bay froze up.

“No, no, no…”

Her mother, father and Naga were all tied up in metal cables, with a metalbender she didn’t recognise standing over them. Naga was bound by extra thick cables, and despite all her struggling, even she couldn’t snap them. But worst of all, was a man who handed her daughter to General Iroh. He carelessly held her daughter in one hand, while she cried, her voice cutting through the night.

“YOU EVIL BASTARDS!” Korra shouted, fury rising up in her. She felt the Avatar State boiling, threatening to break loose, but it wasn’t stable. What she felt inside was malevolent, destructive. But she just held it back for the time being. It wasn’t safe to go into the Avatar State as emotional as she was.

“You are forcing our hand!” Iroh argued. “Your father and mother will be imprisoned for keeping your presence hidden despite the agreement your father signed! Your sister and dog will be sent to different facilities. Unless you come with us this very instant.”

“HOW DARE YOU!” Korra bellowed, and all the ice in the surrounding hundred metres started to crack. But on the pillar General Iroh II stood on and the one beside him, something much more significant happened. The pillars shook, and Iroh stumbled. Korra’s daughter slipped out of his hand, and fell the pillar, on her behind.

Korra blinked, unable to believe what she had just seen. A protective ball of air formed around her, and her water-tornado splashed back down into the bay, and she started levitating towards her child. The soldiers started bombarding her with all their respective elements as she approached the pillars, but one wave of Korra’s hand blew them back where they came from. Iroh tried to send a flamethrower at her, but she sliced through it with an air slice. His eyes widened as he was smacked off the pillar and sent crashing into a building behind.

The soldiers watched wordlessly as Korra landed softly beside her whimpering child, all of them reeling from her simple redirection. Korra pulled up the trouser leg of her child, and saw bruising on her thigh.

“How. Dare. He?” Korra muttered quietly. She snapped the cables on her parents and Naga with a flick of her finger. She closed her eyes, hugging her baby close. When she opened them, they were glowing. Another ball of air surrounded her, but this time, water, earth and fire collected around it and started circling it in an endless loop. She floated off the pillar, still holding her child tight.

“What’s… what’s happening? Is it the Avatar State? But if it is, why…” Senna asked as Naga whimpered. Her instincts didn’t like what they sensed.

“Yes, but it’s different from the time before,” Tonraq tried to answer. “I don’t know… I don’t know why…” He gulped, and looked again to confirm he wasn’t hallucinating.

“I don’t know why her eyes are glowing red.”

Korra hovered above the middle of the bay, and the United Forces found their feet again. They unleashed dozens upon hundreds of water volleys, discs of earth and fireballs. Korra dragged her left hand upwards, and a two-hundred-foot wave rose up at one side. All their attacks barely managed to dent the wave, which just filled the gaps back up in an instant. She thrust it forward, and the wave crashed down on the unfortunate soldiers, and even though a few waterbenders tried to hold it up, Korra just forced it down even more. Over a hundred soldiers were washed off the pier with barely any effort. She did the same to the other pier, and had the exact same result

Inside, Korra felt all of her frustrations boiling to the top through a red tint. All the hurt, anger, frustration, everything _. It feels good, doesn’t it?_ A voice whispered in her head. _Show them our wrath! Show them the consequences of messing with the Avatar!_

 _Who are you?_ Korra asked in her mind.

 _You can’t tell? Well, do you remember saying that you would lock me away for another ten thousand years_? it hinted, and it suddenly hit Korra as she watched her body wipe out the other pier. She wasn’t detached from her body, but it felt like… she was expressing herself, more than anything.

 _Vaatu!_ she realised _. How are you here? I killed you at Harmonic Convergence!_

 _You cannot destroy me anymore than I can destroy Raava_ , Vaatu’s creepy voice bounded around her head. _When you tore open a new spirit portal, I was… revived, in a way. I have fed off of your emotions_.

 _I’ll send you right back where you came from_! Korra replied. She watched as her body shot down an airship with the largest flamethrower she’d ever produced. It crashed into the water, sinking slowly.

 _It’s not that simple, Korra,_ his voice rasped _. Raava and I are two sides of a coin, we are merely a reflection of your emotions. When you let your emotions get the better of you, I will project my power and release the chains of morality that bind you. You will probably choose to project Raava over myself when going into the Avatar State voluntarily, but, with time, that will change. Humans always stab each other in the back eventually, and your life recently is a perfect example of such. Are you going to let them get away with handling your baby like that?_

 _Where’s Raava right now_? Korra demanded.

 _She’s the other side of the coin,_ Vaatu replied _. When you’re calmer, you might be able to speak to her. But for now, let’s put all that learning from the past few months to use. I’ll lend you my power._

 _What do you mean_? Korra asked.

 _That firebender, General Iroh II, as you know him,_ Vaatu told her. _He would have incinerated your child if you hadn’t protected her. Take his bending away! You have figured it out with bloodbending. You don’t need the full moon, just like with that old man. You have the Avatar State!_

 _That old man_? Korra repeated, then remembered the very first time she had bloodbent, against an old man during the daytime who was homophobic to her. That seemed like years ago to her now. _That was you?_

 _That was us_ , Vaatu corrected her, and then his voice vanished. Korra’s vision snapped back into focus as the red tint faded and she looked in horror at the harbour. Everything was destroyed. All four airships were sinking in the water, rapidly being evacuated. She floated back down to the surface of the water, where a chunk of ice supported her weight. All of the United Forces were now in full retreat, their tails between their legs.

“Give up, Avatar!”

Korra’s head shot around to see Iroh holding her bloodied, beaten up father with a fire dagger to his throat. Tonraq was barely conscious, and Iroh was foaming at the mouth. His usually clean, gelled hair was all over the place. He looked her dead in the eyes.

“It’s over!” he declared, a determined glint in his eyes. “Surrender yourself now, or else your father gets it!”

“No!” Korra shouted. “Let him go! That’ll be a declaration of war!”

“I need your answer!” Iroh demanded, and inched the fire dagger even closer to Tonraq’s skin.

Korra looked down, and closed her eyes. The glowing had disappeared, but even though Vaatu didn’t say anything, he didn’t need to. 

Korra looked up, and the devilish glow had returned.

“ **Release him now**!” Korra and Vaatu’s voice demanded at the same time. She stared at General Iroh II.

“You leave me no choice, Avatar!” he declared. “You brought this-“

Iroh’s voice suddenly stopped working. He choked a bit, and tried to follow through with slitting Tonraq’s throat, but he was stiff. He felt paralysed, but his eyes spotted the moon in the sky and saw that it was only half-full. The fire in his fist went out, and he involuntarily released Tonraq. The Southern Chieftain fell to the ground, hurt, but still alive. Iroh floated towards to the chunk of ice directly in front of Korra. Her ominous, red eyes pierced right through his soul.

“How?” he spluttered out. “Who taught… you… to bloodbend… without the full… moon?”

“The Avatar State dwarfs the power of the full moon too many times to count,” Korra answered in her own voice now, completely in control of her actions. She put her free thumb on Iroh’s forehead, and shut out all other distractions. A dome of ice quickly covered them, but no soldier was ready for round 2. They all watched quietly in awe, wondering what would happen next.

Korra located all eight of Iroh’s chi points. The red glow in her eyes grew stronger, demanding to unleash hell on this sinner’s body, but she kept her mind at the task at hand. She located the circulation of blood. The first point was at his left hip. She gathered all her concentration, and sealed the combination of chi and blood. Iroh shook violently, but Korra barely had to pay attention to him to hold him in place.

She went to the second point, and focused deeply before repeating the action. She did the same with the third, and then really concentrated on the fourth. It was the closest to his heart, so she had to be extra careful as so not to stop the pumping action, even though it was tempting. She waited for the tiny break in between pumps, then snapped it shut. She moved over to the other four points, and managed to do them a tiny bit quicker. Overall, Korra spent about a minute doing it, but when she was done, she was certain she didn’t sense any internal bleeding. She released her grip on Iroh, and he fell onto his face, panting heavily. He tried to push himself up, but fell back down. Korra used airbending to kick his chin and flip him onto his back.

“Agh!” he exclaimed painfully. He glanced up and saw Korra peering down at him. She spat on him in contempt.

“Go on!” Korra challenged him. “Try anything you want. Any amount of firebending from you has been pathetic so far, so I don’t feel there’s any need to worry. You should be ashamed to be descended from the Royal Family.”

“You know it’s bad when a bloodbender talks down to you,” Iroh jibed. Then, he suddenly slashed at Korra. Except nothing came out, except for the smallest spark. Not even enough to light a cigarette.

“Not bad for my first time,” Korra said smugly, although she wasn’t exactly in a cheerful mood. She glanced down at her daughter, who was still in her arms. Her eyes faded back to normal at the sight of her baby.

“I guess it’s a family tradition, huh?” Iroh joked sarcastically, but there was no sarcastic smile on his face, just an expression that was weary and exhausted. He let his head drop and passed out on the ice.

“You’re not finished yet,” Korra said, and turned the ice dome back into water. She didn’t let it drop back into the sea though, and gathered it above her head with her free hand. She positioned it above Iroh’s body, then released it. It splashed on him and he woke up in a frenzy.

“Wha-wha-wha,” he spluttered, then looked up at Korra, and put on a fearless expression. “What are you going to do now?” he asked bitterly. “Kill me?” 

Korra didn’t answer, but instead weakly slashed fire at him, in view of everyone. He automatically tried to part it, but was just knocked backwards into the water. Korra heard a general murmur of confusion among the soldiers, and she thrust her hand at Iroh. A wave picked him up as he tried to swim away and carried him over to land, before dumping him on the dock. He stayed down, defeated.

“Listen up everyone!” Korra yelled, and the port went silent. “If anyone, and I mean anyone, mistreats my family because they’re related to me, they will face my wrath as the Avatar! I just removed General Iroh’s firebending, and he can consider himself lucky.” Iroh looked down, avoiding the hundreds of eyes that turned to him. “I am not a terrorist, but I am human!” Korra continued. “This is a warning! If you have issues with me, that’s fine, but do not bring anyone I’m close to into it!”

Korra looked around and saw her parents barely managing to get up. She bounced her daughter up and down, and she giggled, oblivious to the atmosphere. She looked around, and spotted Mako, but didn’t look directly at his eyes.

“I have one more announcement to make,” Korra declared. “I’m going to put up a fog. I will beat the living shit out of this army again if anyone removes it with bending. I won’t attack you if you follow my rule for a few minutes.” A couple of objections raised up from the crowd. “Or does anyone wanna go at it again?” Silence. “Good.”

Korra splayed her hand out in front of her, and took a deep breath. When she exhaled, a dense fog appeared out of the water, and crept over the ranks. They all did what she said, and she waited until it had covered them all completely to dive into the water. She created an air-bubble for herself and her daughter. They reached the city’s foundation, and Korra placed her hand on the ice. A tunnel ploughed open, and they slid inside. Korra pushed the water back out and froze the entrance shut.

Mako stood there impatiently, barely able to see his own hands. He could hear that Beifong was only a metre or two in front of him, chattering away, but couldn’t even make out the outline of her body.

He felt an ice-cold hand tug on the back of his shirt, and he looked behind himself, but of course he couldn’t see anything. So he walked forward blindly with his arms out in front of him. Everyone was talking at once, so he couldn’t tell who had wanted for him.

Suddenly, the ground underneath Mako gave way. He tried to say something but a tiny slab of ice muffled his cry. He slid down a rough slide and landed on his ass in a small cave. He immediately lit a strong fire in his hand, illuminating the entire space, which was seven metres by seven. Then, he saw a figure in front of him cradling a baby, and he sighed.

“Hey, Mako, you’re looking… great,” Korra began very awkwardly, mainly because it was a huge lie. His hair was greasy and his fringe was splattered all over his forehead. His clothes were stained in multiple places, mainly with what smelled like beer and vodka. He had a fair bit of facial hair growing patchily, which was very uncharacteristic of him. He shaved three times every two weeks, as she remembered, and he had heavy bags under his eyes. And to add to that list, his eyes were very bloodshot.

“Korra, what’s going on!?” Mako demanded. “You’ll be lucky not to be facing life in prison if you’re caught.” Korra sat down opposite him, and gestured for him to get comfy. He reluctantly played along, crouching down. “But I guess that may as well be impossible. You’ve destroyed four airships and our army effortlessly. We’re lucky that Asami’s financing it all.”

Korra opened her mouth, but somehow, the words that she wanted to come out refused to. “Is she still mad?” was what came out, not even close to what she wanted to say to Mako.

“She’s locked herself away, and won’t talk to any of her friends. I’ve tried getting through to her, but I’ve asked to come in about twenty times and she only let me three times since you left. It’s eating her from the inside out.” He looked at the baby. “Congratulations. If you’re wondering, Asami told me that you were pregnant.” Korra opened her mouth to say something, but Mako kept on talking. “Before you go asking, I only told Beifong on a need-to-know basis. It’s not something we want to extort.”

Korra grimaced. She now knew she had to break the news, but another question which popped into her head strolled out first. “So, you and Beifong are on my side?” Korra asked hopefully, sitting up. She was keeping her girl warm with very light firebending.

“No,” Mako answered defiantly. “It’s just… we’ve both had parent issues and we don’t see it relevant to the investigation.” His breath spiked a little bit before the next question, and he shuddered. “And… your eyes… why were they red?”

“It’s nothing you can help me with, if you were offering,” Korra said sarcastically. “But seriously though, I’ll deal with it myself. I’ve got very important news to tell you, and we don’t have much time. Although you might already know…?” she added.

“Know what?” Mako asked. Korra shut her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them, there was just a steely reserve there. She squashed down on all her fears and doubts, and held out her daughter in both hands.

“This is Kalla, your daughter.”

* * *

Mako’s heart skipped two full beats. “What…?”

“This is Kalla, your daughter,” Korra repeated. “I would’ve asked you for your name suggestions, but you weren’t around, sadly. But you’re here now! Isn’t that great?” Her mouth curled into a broad, forced smile.

Mako gaped as Korra held out Kalla for Mako to hold, but he didn’t leap in ecstasy and grab his daughter like she’d played out in her mind. “When?” he asked, not able to take it in.

“Oh yeah, you probably haven’t connected the dots,” Korra said, still smiling and holding out her, no, _their_ daughter. Mako took Kalla and held her awkwardly, like she was a bomb.

“What dots?” he asked.

“Remember when we got drunk in your apartment way back last winter?” Korra reminded him, but didn’t wait for a reply. “Yeah, it was then…”

“No,” denied Mako, frowning. “This is the first time we’ve had a conversation in over a year. We’ve barely seen each other, and anytime I ever tried to talk to you, you just ignored me. I genuinely don’t remember.”

“Well,” Korra said, trying to laugh it off. “I know it seems far-fetched, seeing as you don’t seem to remember, but, she’s ours! So… hooray!”

The ‘hooray’ died after echoing around for a tiny bit, and Mako put his hand on his forehead, trying to sort his thoughts out. Korra stayed respectfully quiet while he did this, but the answer he came up with was the furthest from what she had hoped for.

“Look, Korra,” Mako started. “I don’t know what type of game you’re playing, but I’m not stupid! First of all, you run away from Republic City after being caught red-handed bloodbending Asami, and hide away for over half a year. Then you wreck the United Forces, and take away General Iroh’s bending, just because you felt like it! And now, you’re trying to rope me in with you? Well, it’s not gonna work!”

“Iroh dropped Kalla and held a dagger to my dad’s throat!” Korra argued. “I can’t let people get away with that! I have to send out a message!”

“You’re not owning up to your responsibilities!” Mako argued. “What gives you the right to decide whether or not they deserve to have their bending taken away from them?!” He shoved Kalla back into Korra’s arms, who instinctively held her tight.

“I have the power, that gives me every right!” Korra responded. “And why don’t you want to hold Kalla? You’ve barely had her.”

“That’s not my daughter!” Mako stated defiantly. Korra’s eyes widened.

“What?!” she asked. She heard him perfectly, but she needed to hear confirmation to make sure her ears weren’t playing tricks on her. She put a hand on the ice.

“That. Is. Not. My. Daughter!” Mako repeated, emphasizing every word.

“How could you…” Korra said, breathless. But the worst part was, she’d felt for the vibration of his heartbeat through the ice, and it hadn’t sped up while he said that. He genuinely believed what he was saying.

“Don’t give me that!” Mako told her. “Now, just come with us before you end up dragging other nations-“

“Don’t you ever come near my daughter again, or I’ll break every last bone in your body.”

Mako’s eyes flew open as Korra powered a block of ice into his gut. He slumped down, groaning, and Korra held back the tears as she blew him back up the hole and into the fog again. She felt like kneeling down and crying, but she couldn’t waste any more time. 

Korra popped up into the fog and sensed for her parents through the ice. It was easy enough to tell, given that there was an ice tent covering them, and everyone was giving even the tent a wide berth. It took her some careful manoeuvring, but she made it over without any more trouble. She held her breath and avoided thinking too much as she entered.

“Korra!” Senna exclaimed, rushing over to hug her daughter. Tonraq did the same and for the next minute they just hugged it out, letting all of their worries go for that brief period.

“I’m so, so sorry,” Korra said, breaking the hug. “I’ve dragged you all into this mess. You’ll probably be thrown out as Chieftain, dad.” She bumped Kalla up and down, and she giggled happily, innocent.

“Korra, I would never, ever, choose being the Chieftain over your father!” Tonraq reassured Korra, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t you forget that.”

“All the fancy servants in the world mean nothing if you’re not happy, sweetheart,” Senna agreed. “We will always back you up, no matter how bad the situation gets.”

“Thanks,” Korra told them. “It means a lot more than you guys realise.”

“Anytime,” Tonraq said. He took his hand off her shoulder. “But there’s one or two things we were… wondering about.”

“Like what?” Korra asked.

“Firstly, what’s your plan for now?” her mom asked. “There’s no way you can stay here, there could be attempts on your life!”

“I know,” Korra admitted. “I’m thinking of getting a boat to somewhere I’ve got in mind. I don’t know the people who live there, but I think they’ll let us stay there for a few days before I figure my next move out.”

“Us?” Tonraq repeated. “Korra, I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s a great idea for all of us to be travelling together. I think it would be smarter if you went alone.”

“No, no,” Korra said, “I meant me and Kalla, obviously.” Her parents exchanged a nervous glance. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Korra,” Senna said, taking her hand. “I know this will break your heart, but… your father and I think that it would be best if we minded Kalla. Wait!” she said as Korra began to raise a fierce objection. “Just hear us out.” Korra closed her mouth obediently as her mother continued. “You know we’re only looking out for the both of you. You’ll probably be watching your back 24/7, and taking care of a baby is already stressful enough, as you know.” Korra nodded.

“So that’s why we think,” Tonraq started, “that it would the best for Kalla if you let us take care of her while we wait for this all to blow over.”

“But you don’t even have the same skin tone!” Korra argued, after taking a moment to let what her parents had suggested sink in. “People will figure that that’s not your daughter. It’s been okay tonight, but questions will start to come after a while!”

“Korra, please, do it for Kalla,” Senna said gently. “All we want is to keep her safe.”

Korra looked away, the tears starting to appear again for the second time in an hour. She went up to the wall of the tent and banged her head on it. It was heart-wrenching, what her parents were suggesting.

But the annoying thing was that they were spot on. It had been proven literally ten minutes ago, when General Iroh had dropped Kalla. It was her fault for Kalla being in that situation, and the result was the docks being decimated in her anger. But if she had been unlucky, Kalla could have landed on her head. Korra shuddered at just the thought of it. She noticed Naga at the far end of the tent, watching quietly.

“What do you think I should do, girl?” Korra asked, walking over to her polar bear-dog. But she blinked in surprise when Naga bared her teeth and growled menacingly. Korra then tried to pet her, but got a shock when Naga jumped up onto her hunches and backed away, all the time snarling.

“What… why?” Korra asked in disbelief, standing back. “Naga…”

“Korra,” her dad said, “there’s something else we need to talk to you about. Your eyes, they were red. What’s happened to the Avatar State?”

“I’m not sure,” Korra sighed, her shoulders slumping as she turned back to her father. She smiled as she looked at Kalla’s content face. “This is the first time my eyes have ever gone red. But it’s something that only I can tackle as the Avatar. It clearly bugged Naga though.”

“Korra, you don’t have to face this alone,” Tonraq said, worried. “It’s dangerous to bottle up everything inside.”

“Thanks, dad, but I don’t even know too much about it and how to get rid of it,” Korra rejected. “If we need help, I’ll look for it however I can.”

“That’s good to hear,’ Senna said. “But we still think that Kalla would be better off with us. Think of the future, _her_ future. Please, Korra.”

Korra gazed down at her daughter’s light blue eyes. They were full of hope. They looked back at her mother’s, and at that moment, Korra realised that she had a responsibility as a parent to look out for her child. She’d already fucked up as the Avatar enough over the last ten months. She could at least try to be realistic about this.

“I love you, Kalla,” Korra stated, and tickled her daughter’s cheek. Kalla gurgled with happiness, and Korra burnt the image into her memory, before putting on a poker face. She reluctantly handed Kalla to her mom, who held her granddaughter with great care. Korra hugged them all one last time, then looked over at Naga. Naga was giving her a deathly stare, but Korra didn’t challenge it, even though it pained her deeply. She walked outside the tent to the edge of the water.

The fog was beginning to lessen up, and in another few minutes, it’d probably be gone. She noticed a speedboat which had drifted out a bit into the ruined bay, and it was fairly intact, apart from a few scratches here and there on the paintwork.

“That’s my ride,” Korra decided. She froze a raft of ice in the water, and hopped on it. She wobbled a tiny bit, but then used a wave to carry her over. She jumped into the boat, and looked at the controls. She vaguely remembered Asami explaining to her how to drive one of them. She bent a tiny bit of metal off the seat and moulded it into the key-slot. When it fit perfectly, she twisted it, and the engine hummed into life. 

Korra used waterbending to turn it around, then accelerated out of the bay. She nearly had a full tank of fuel, which was good, because she was going to need it. As she left the Southern Tribe in the distance, she picked up the map lying on the floor and worked out her route. It would probably take a few days to get there, but she was set on it.

“Next stop, Kyoshi Island.”


	24. A Warm Welcome

Korra used the stars to guide her as she spent the next three days and nights in the speedboat. The fuel ran out after an hour or two of going full throttle, and Korra regretted not taking a normal boat. There was no sail on a speedboat, obviously, so as soon as Korra had used up all the fuel in the tank and lying around, she had to rely on her waterbending. She lived on a diet of fish, which was ok, but after a day or two of eating the same food, it really started to mess with her bowels.

But all that paled in comparison to the amount of stress Korra was experiencing. After only half an hour away from the South Pole, she began worrying frantically about Kalla. It took all her willpower not to turn the boat around and head back to check on her. But to add to that, the times it tempted her the most was when she was creating a current to push the boat to Kyoshi Island, peeling away at her motivation to keep going. She would push and pull a fast-enough current for an hour, always struggling to maintain focus.

Korra could have used the Avatar State to speed the boat up by several times its current pace, but she didn’t do it for two reasons. 

Firstly, she wasn’t in a life or death situation, but the second was the one really holding her back. Korra spent the lonely days and nights wondering about two things; Kalla and Vaatu. She’d tried to speak to both Vaatu and Raava, but neither of them would answer her. She could sense their energies though. She hadn’t ever noticed Raava in her body before in her life, as Raava’s spirit had always been inside of her and she didn’t realise it was something supernatural, but with Vaatu there, it was like having one hot and one cold hand.

Korra mulled over what Vaatu had told her. She felt very confident that she could go into the normal Avatar State, as the separation she felt inside was very pronounced. She tried to bring Raava halfway up, just to test it, and it didn’t feel anything like when she fought the United Forces. Raava was in perfect sync with Korra’s mind, but Vaatu fed off her anxiety and other negative emotions. She thought about what Aang and Gyatso had told all those months ago, about the ‘darkness’ inside of her.

Korra had dismissed it after about a month, but now she knew that they had meant Vaatu, even if they didn’t know themselves. She racked up a million different ways of feeling so good that she could ‘temporarily satisfy herself to the full’ as Gyatso had put it, but she couldn’t think of one that was flawless. The only two standout moments of pure happiness she could recall ever since creating the portal in Republic City was when she gazed into Kalla’s eyes for the first time. That had been breath-taking. The other was to a much lesser extent when she’d been on a vacation with Asami, but she wasn’t completely euphoric back then. It had been a first date, not a wedding, and she enjoyed herself. But not to the extent she would need to get rid of Vaatu, seemingly.

“But if looking into your daughter’s eyes for the first time doesn’t make you completely happy, what will?” Korra muttered, talking out loud. It helped her confirm that she wasn’t going crazy. “Well, I’m not going to be at peace while we’re separated, anyway.” Another thought, which caused her to boil in anger was thinking of Mako. “How could he just reject his daughter?!” Deep down inside though, even if she wouldn’t accept it, Korra knew that Mako had a somewhat valid argument.

Early in the afternoon of the fourth day of being stuck on the boat with only her own thoughts for company, Korra spotted Kyoshi Island, which had a strong spiritual vibe about it. Korra would’ve described it as a pulse or glow. She felt Raava rise up a bit more as she got closer. She sped up, rising up a huge wave to carry her the last three hundred metres. 

The nose of the speedboat impaled into the sand on the tiny beach, and she had to jump off to avoid being thrown off. She landed harshly on the sand and dug her toes in, happy to have something new to stand on.

“Finally!” the water-tribe woman shouted.

She ran up and down the edge of the water gleefully, putting aside her more pressing issues, just to burn all the excess energy her legs had built up sitting in that boat. There was one small wooden pier sticking out into the water, and all six of the poles were already occupied by eight boats crammed in, so she left her boat halfway in the sand, glad to be rid of it.

After about ten minutes of burning off energy, Korra brushed off whatever sand was on her, and started walking up the steep trail that lead from the beach. She needed to find somewhere that had been very personal to Kyoshi, where she could meditate and hopefully talk to her. The only other Avatar she’d properly talked to was Aang, and technically Wan, but she hadn’t actually had a conversation with Wan. She knew that Kyoshi had lived to an age somewhere around 270 years old, so she had to know something of use.

Korra’s senses perked up as she heard rustling in the bush not far away from her, in the middle of the small forest, but kept her eyes straight ahead. She had left her shoes in the boat, and had forgot to put them back on when walking up given that it was a well paved trail, but it had turned out handy enough. Korra didn’t have the biggest range of sensing vibrations in the earth, but it was still sharp enough. She felt two, three, five, seven bodies all scurrying around, and after a minute, they were all in position to ambush her, but Korra didn’t give them the chance.

Korra swivelled and punched a whirlwind to her left with her right hand. It slammed into a bush, and a woman with very pale skin and a greenish dress was thrown several metres back. Korra felt someone she had her back to throw something, so she dropped to her stomach, and watched a couple of ropes with weights at the end wrap around a tree. She got up, turned, and sent an air slash into that particular bush, but her assailant got out of harm's way just in time.

Another person jumped out at Korra’s side, and tried to chi block her, but Korra grabbed their wrist and twisted their arm behind their back. The person, who was definitely a woman, let out a gasp. Korra didn’t intend on breaking her arm unless necessary, so she air-kicked the woman in the back. She shot towards another person waiting in the bushes, and collided with whoever was there. They tumbled away out of Korra’s line of vision. Korra was tempted to firebend as that was a lot more effective for fighting, but she’d probably burn down the forest while she was at it, so that was definitely a no-go.

“I didn’t come here to fight!” Korra declared, then leant back as another projectile swiped by her head. She grumbled, and located the remaining four attackers. They were all staying at a distance now, not so confident. Korra put her right leg forward, leant heavily on it, and brought her fists up in a curling motion. Earth encased one of the assailants who was trying to hide. Korra air-vaulted upwards to avoid more projectiles. She somersaulted, and brought a blunt, but very thick, slash of air down with her heel. It slammed into another fighter, and Korra saw their body slump from her bird's eye view. She landed gracefully, facing the other two with one palm facing in front of her, and the other facing the sky.

“Are you… are you the Avatar?” the person who Korra had encased in earth behind Korra asked. Another woman.

“Yes,” Korra answered calmly, although she didn’t look around to face the woman. “And I can sense both of you two hiding as well. I don’t want to fight any of you, and we can call it quits right now, or else I can beat you up too. Your choice.”

Korra waited a few seconds, and then the last two walked out glumly. They dropped their weapons, which were… fans? Regardless, Korra put her arms down by her side, although she stayed alert. She looked the two remaining people left, and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Why are you dressed like Kyoshi?” Korra asked. They both had identical dark and light green dresses, and on a closer look, they had white face paint on, with red around their eyes, rather than just pale skin.

“We don’t have much of a reputation, then, if the Avatar doesn’t even know who we are, do we?” one of them commented, who was yet again female. It seemed like all of them were women.

“Are you the sages of… Kyoshi Temple?” Korra asked delicately. She didn’t know if Kyoshi had a temple, but why else would there be a group of people dressed like her? Then, an old story she had heard years back, from Katara, suddenly hit her. “Wait, you’re the Kyoshi Warriors, aren’t you? That’s why you’re all dressed like her!”

“So she does know,” the other Kyoshi Warrior said, relieved. “Although we can’t exactly boast, with how she just blew us away so casually.”

“Yeah,” the first one said. “But the radio broadcast about the United Forces at the South Pole sounds somewhat believable now.”

“You know about that?” Korra asked, pursing her lips awkwardly. “Am I not welcome here? Is that why you attacked me?”

“We attacked you because you crashed into our beach and started to march up to the village,” the one still stuck in earth stated dryly. Korra laughed awkwardly, trying to relieve the tension. She turned and sunk the rocks back into the ground. She didn’t even get a ‘thanks’.

“Sorry about that,” Korra apologized, rubbing the back of her head. Then she stood up straight, hands by her side. “But I need to talk to Avatar Kyoshi, and I think this is the only place I can do it. I’ve already caused enough trouble with the United Forces, and I don’t want a repeat of that, so if you ask kindly, I’ll leave, but I really need her guidance. So please, let me stay. I’ll only be here a day at the most, and I’ll sleep outside.”

“Why do you need to be here to talk to her?” the one who Korra had released asked. “Can’t you talk to her anywhere?”

“No, it’s… complicated,” Korra answered. “I’d rather explain later.”

“Whatever,” the first warrior to talk said. “You are the Avatar, so we’ll give you everything you need, but it’s best for the moment if you just stay hidden, so we’ll go around the village to the town hall. My name is Soma.” She walked over and held out her hand. Korra accepted it, then had to hold her gasp in, as Soma squeezed as hard as she could. Korra returned it fiercely, and they held it for about ten seconds, before one of the others broke it up.

“Come on, Soma,” the other warrior said.

“Just getting to know her,” Soma replied, and dropped her hand. Soma led the way as Korra and the other two warriors started following her through the forest, leaving the other Kyoshi Warriors behind.

“What about your friends?” Korra asked. “I can heal them if you want, it won’t be inconvenient.”

“They’ll be fine!” Soma snapped. “It’ll only take them a few minutes to get back to the village on their own.”

“Just offering,” Korra muttered. She tiptoed her way around the back of the village, which was on top of a mound and spread downward from that. There were roughly 35 buildings in the village, all small wooden shacks. The only noticeable one was the three-storey building at the very back. There was a rotten statue of what Korra assumed was Avatar Kyoshi in the middle of the village. They got around to the back of the town hall in no time, and Soma knocked on the door. An old woman with white hair tied into a braid opened the door.

“Who are you?” the woman asked, looking at Korra. “And where are the other warriors?”

“They’re on their way back,” Soma answered, her head down slightly. “A few were… injured fighting the Avatar here.” The old woman’s mouth hung open, and she gaped at Korra, speechless. Korra had gotten it a thousand times before though, so she knew how to greet people like his.

“It’s an honour to be here,” Korra said, bowing. “I’m sorry for the problem with the Kyoshi Warriors earlier, I hope you can look past it.” Soma _harrumphed_ at the last part, but Korra ignored it.

“Come inside quickly, all of you!” the old woman urged, and they came inside. Korra and the Kyoshi Warriors followed her up the stairs to the top floor, which was modest, but a nice visitors’ room nonetheless. The old woman closed the shudders on the window, and gestured for Korra to sit down at one side of a table. Korra did so, and the others all sat on the opposite side. It reminded Korra of when she tried to break out of the compound when she was younger, and had been lectured by the White Lotus.

“What’s your name?” Korra asked the old woman politely. She had more pressing issues, but she wouldn’t be in much of a position to go asking favours if she didn’t even know their name.

“My name?” the woman asked. She looked like she was in her mid-to-late eighties. “My name is Ty Lee, and I’m the governor, if you will, of Kyoshi Island.”

“Ty Lee?” Korra repeated, sitting up. “I’ve heard of you! Didn’t you used to run with Fire Lord Zuko's, the crazy sister, or something like that?”

Ty Lee shuddered at the mention of her old friend, and all the warriors simultaneously glared at Korra. She shrunk back down a bit. She was evidently a bit rusty when it came to her social skills still, part of why she hated all those boring meetings that ensued after Kuivera. If she remembered correctly, she’d just kept her mouth shut when possible.

“Yes,” Ty Lee answered, and put on a smile, not taking it to heart. “She scared me into being her friend when we were growing up, but thankfully, I cut her loose before her mind snapped entirely. I’m not offended, don’t worry, but just between us, don’t mention her name. Some of the older people living here have bad memories of when she used the Kyoshi Warriors to take over Ba Sing Sae. That’s if,” she added, “you intend on meeting the rest of the village?”

“Has everyone here heard about what happened at the South Pole?” asked Korra, deflated.

“Yes,” Soma answered. “And that’s why you shouldn’t be showing your face around here! We don’t want the whole navy of the United Forces showing up on our doorstep!”

“Soma, don’t be so rude to the Avatar!” Ty Lee scolded her. “I’d expect better from my own granddaughter!”

“Whatever,” Soma said, disinterested in her grandmother’s opinion.

“Look, you attacked me earlier, I was just defending myself!” Korra said, getting irritated by this girl’s attitude.

“She means no harm,” Ty Lee said graciously, pinching Soma on the thigh. “Anyway, why have you come to Kyoshi Island? You don’t intend on hiding here, do you? I’m sorry if you do, but this isn’t the biggest island in the world. You’ll probably be better off somewhere else.”

“No,” Korra cleared up, and she noticed their shoulders all collectively drop as they sighed in relief. She didn’t blame them. “I’m really lost at the minute, and I thought that by coming here that I could talk to Avatar Kyoshi. You see, at Harmonic Convergence four years ago, my connection to the past Avatars was severed. I thought that I’d never be able to talk to them again, but a few months after I created a new portal in Republic City, Avatar Aang appeared in front of me.”

“So it’s true?” one of the warriors interrupted. “You really blew open a new portal? That’s awesome!”

“If that’s how you want to look at it,” Korra said sombrely. The other two warriors were a lot more friendly than Soma. “It’s brought about a whole ton of problems with it.” She felt Vaatu’s energy swirl around inside her as she said that. “Wait, haven’t any of you ever been to Republic City?”

“We have,” Soma answered. “Once, a few months ago, but the place the spirit portal is meant to be is just covered up by this metal dome. We didn’t see any spirits there, either. Is it true that you shut it while running away from the police?” The last question was more of a jibe than anything else.

“Yeah,” Korra answered flatly, making eye contact.

“It’s not your place to be asking those kinds of questions!” Ty Lee murmured to Soma, but everyone heard it.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Soma stated, giving her grandmother a cold look.

“Soma!” Ty Lee scolded. “Go back to the training den, and don’t let anyone know about this until I say so! Understood?”

Soma didn’t say anything, and Ty Lee breathed heavily in warning. “Understood?” she repeated.

“I’m going on a walk,” Soma declared defiantly, and stormed out. Ty Lee rubbed her weary eyes, tired, as Soma slammed the door shut.

“I’m so sorry!” Korra apologised, getting up to follow. “I’ll bring her back.”

“No, no, you’re fine,” Ty Lee reassured, waving for Korra to sit down, which Korra did after a moment of hesitation. “Soma is just angry that the warriors weren’t able to stop you. There’s very little that ever happens on Kyoshi Island, so this is just her overreacting. Continue with what you were saying.”

“If you’re sure,” Korra said, offering the others a chance to take it back, but they didn’t, so she continued. “Anyway, Aang said that I could maybe contact my past Avatars if I went to a sentimental location from their lives, and Kyoshi Island was the most convenient when I, you know, got away from the United Forces, so I came here.”

“Mhm hmm,” Ty Lee hummed, taking in what Korra had said. “In that case, why don’t you try to talk to her now? We don’t have any monks here, so I’m afraid we can’t help you with anything spiritual, but we’d be glad to help the Avatar in any way we can.”

“That’s… as good a place as any to start, I guess,” Korra agreed. She looked warily at the three of them, wondering if it was safe for her to meditate around these complete strangers, but they seemed friendly enough. Besides, two of were part of a group named after a former Avatar, so surely they wouldn’t attack the present one? And Ty Lee seemed very reasonable.

“Is there anything else you need?” one of the warriors asked. “Like candles, or bells, or something like that?”

“No,” Korra laughed. “Candles are just for show. All I need you to do is stand guard over my body, as I might go into the spirit world. But, do you know any place where Kyoshi spent a lot of her time in particular? That would be very helpful.”

“That sounds doable,” Ty Lee said, and looked to the two warriors. “Escort her to Kyoshi Shrine, but avoid any unnecessary attention. There aren’t too many houses on the way, but it’s no harm if we keep her presence hidden just for the time being. I’ll go with you, as well. I know a story or two from old friends about Avatar Aang, and they might hint in a way only you can recognise if you’re stuck somehow.”

“Thanks,” Korra said gratefully. “Can we go now?”

“I suppose,” Ty Lee said, looking to her two warriors for any objections, but they just nodded in agreement. She got up, slowly, and pointed to a robe hanging on a wall. “Put that on, just in case we meet anyone.”

Korra did as she was told, but as she was putting on the robe, a question came into her head. “What about the other warriors?” she asked. “Won’t they spread the word that they were taken out by an airbender?”

“They’ll report to Soma,” Ty Lee answered. “And even though she was moody to you, she won’t ignore me on something like this. She is generally very nice, just stubborn the odd time.”

“That’s good to know,” Korra said, content, and they started to head downstairs, Korra keeping her face hidden.


	25. Trial and Error

Korra, Ty Lee and the other two Kyoshi Warriors got to the shrine without meeting anyone despite it being the middle of the day. They passed a few houses, but everyone was inside, thankfully. When they got to the front door, Korra noticed a modest but nice grave a few metres next to the shack. It had a white headstone, and there were fans laying in a protective glass case in front of the engraving. She peered, but couldn’t read the writing.

“Who is that?” Korra asked, pointing. “It can’t be Kyoshi’s grave itself, can it? It looks very new.”

“That,” Ty Lee said sadly, “is the grave of one of my best friends, Suki. You may have heard of her? She was good friends with Avatar Aang.”

“Suki?” Korra repeated, the name triggering an old memory. “I think I met her before, when I was seven or something like that. Wasn’t she Chieftain Sokka’s wife?”

“Yes,” Ty Lee answered, stopping for a moment to pay her respects. The other two did likewise, and Korra followed suit. After a minute of silence, Ty Lee continued:

“She revolutionised the Kyoshi Warriors and helped end the 100 Year War, aiding Avatar Aang. I was even on an elite team of Warriors who guarded Fire Lord Zuko with her, back when the colonies were still being disputed over, and there were multiple attempts on his life. Great woman. Great personality.”

“She only passed away five years ago,” one of the warriors added. “Great teacher.” They stayed at the grave for another few minutes, Ty Lee particularly reminiscent, before they headed into the hut. It was fairly sparse compared to the Air Nomad temples she’d been to with Tenzin, and was more like a museum, but Korra didn’t care. She certainly got a spiritual vibe off of this place. She hung her cloak on the door and looked at the relics. It seemed like Kyoshi didn’t have many personal belongings during her life, as it was mainly just her clothes and fans, and a few things she’d collected. Nothing struck Korra as awe-inspiring. Very humble.

“This dress is huge,” Korra commented on the kimono hanging on a wall. It was Korra’s full height, from top to bottom. “She really must have been seven foot tall.”

“It wasn’t just her bending that made her so commanding,” a warrior chipped in, as if she knew Kyoshi personally. _They probably know what her favourite colour was,_ Korra thought, seeing as they were in a group named after Kyoshi.

“So,” Ty Lee started. “What should we do? I mean, Onia, Ursa and I?”

“Well,” Korra said, pondering it for a minute. “I’m, I’m not really sure.”

“We don’t mind leaving if you want,” the one to Ty Lee’s left stated bluntly. “If we can’t be of any help, then just say it. It’d only be annoying if you gave us a run-around as so not to hurt our feelings.” Korra tried to think of something polite to say, then decided against it, as she’d specifically just been told not to do that.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind,” Korra said gratefully. “If you stay quiet outside, that’d be very helpful.”

“Of course,” the one to Ty Lee’s right said graciously. They all walked out and shut the door behind them. Korra sat down into the Lotus position. She faced the painting depicting the birth of Kyoshi Island.

She attempted to make Kyoshi appear by using Raava’s memory, but that didn’t work, as Korra had expected. She vaguely remembered Aang saying that Jinora could come to him, so that meant that she didn’t necessarily need the Avatar State, and it hadn’t worked like that since Harmonic Convergence, obviously. So she brought her heartrate to as slow a beat as it could get, through proper breathing, and focused deeply. 

Korra tried to suck all the tiny remnants of Raava that were attached to the memorabilia around the room into her body. She managed to centre all the energy to her body temporarily, but it did nothing. So she imagined it all gathering in front of her, and for a moment, she thought she heard a voice. She opened her eyes excitedly, but then realised it was the Kyoshi Warriors and Ty Lee whispering. After half an hour of fruitless effort, she groaned out loud.

“Is something wrong?” Ty Lee’s gentle voice travelled through the door. “Did you have a disagreement with Kyoshi?”

“I wish,” Korra said, getting up and opening the door, getting a confused look from the other three. “At least then I would’ve been able to talk to her! I tried a lot of different things, but none of them worked even in the slightest. Any suggestions?” Korra felt the energy slowly float back to the items it had been attached to previously.

The woman who Korra reckoned was Ursa, given how they had been addressing each other outside, shut the door behind her after they came in. “Can I say something?” she asked.

“Go for it,” Korra allowed.

“Well, I heard a story from Suki and Sokka’s son, Surak, the last time he visited,” Ursa started. “Apparently, when Avatar Aang, his future wife Katara and Sokka were at a trial protesting Avatar Kyoshi’s innocence against the murder of Chin the Conqueror, Aang dressed as Kyoshi, hoping it would trigger something, and it did.”

“What?” Korra interrupted. “Did she appear and prove it herself?”

“If you let me finish, you’d find out quicker,” Ursa jibed. “Anyway, you’re half-right. Kyoshi did appear, but she confessed to the murder. There’s more to the story, but the main thing is that Kyoshi appeared when Aang wore her clothes. So maybe…” Ursa trailed off, now indicating for Korra to complete her sentence, which she did.

“-maybe Kyoshi will appear if I wear her clothes!” Korra finished, straightening up with enthusiasm. “Why don’t we try that right now?”

“You’re forgetting one crucial fact,” Onia stated, and all eyes turned to her. “If I remember correctly, Kyoshi appeared in place of Avatar Aang’s body, and Aang didn’t remember what happened after, supposedly.”

“That’s right,” Ty Lee backed her up, who was leaning against a wall. “I definitely remember Surak saying that. He never left out a detail, just like his mother.”

“Is Surak here now?” Korra asked. “Maybe he knows something else that’ll help us.” But all three of them shook their heads in unison.

“He lives in Republic City,” Ursa told Korra. “The last time he visited was on anniversary of Suki’s death, four months ago, to pay his respects, just like the four years previous. He used to come more often to visit Suki, but not anymore.”

“That’s annoying,” Korra said, dejected. “Do you think it’s worth a shot anyway?”

“Why not,” Ty Lee said, and pointed to a small drawer just under the window. “There should be some make-up in the drawer just over there. If we go to the cliff edge just behind the cabin, you can waterbend yourself a mirror of ice. Onia can help you with the red make-up around the eyes. It’s tricky the first time.”

“Are you sure it’s ok for me to be taking anything from here?” Korra asked. “And won’t I need to borrow your gear?”

“We’ve got plenty of make-up,” Onia reassured her. “As for gear, I’m sure it’s ok if you wear her old clothes.”

“Wait a minute!” Ursa butted in. “Avatar Kyoshi’s old clothes? They’re, they’re sacred! We can’t just let her throw them on for the sake of a wild guess!”

“The Avatar isn’t a celestial being,” Ty Lee interjected, without hesitation. “This shrine is a monument to what she achieved in her life, not a temple to worship her, as some nations do with their old Avatars. And if even if her clothes are sacred, we’ll need something to summon her with. So we’ll let Korra use whatever she needs.” Ursa went quiet, showing the respect Ty Lee commanded.

“I wouldn’t want to do anything to make you uncomfortable,” Korra told them. “Honestly, I don’t mind wearing the normal outfit.”

“If she’s got a problem with it, she can tell you herself,” Onia responded. “Come on, let’s go.”

  
Korra clumsily painted the sticky white fluid onto her entire face apart from her lips, including around her eyes. They were facing the sea, hidden behind a small hill. The strong wind constantly pushed and tugged at Korra’s paintbrush, and she got some onto her clothes. She bent it out immediately, before it could set, but it was really getting on her nerves. She couldn’t focus properly on stopping the wind, because then she had to multitask while doing her make-up. Behind her, Onia sniggered while waiting for Korra to finish with the white paint.

“There,” Korra declared, after fifteen minutes, triumphantly. She had painted from the top of her forehead to just below her Adam’s Apple, and had gone from ear to ear. Her long hair covered up a lot of it, but it was good enough. “If you’re done laughing, you can help me now with the red.”

“You clearly don’t put on make-up much,” Onia commented, picking up the brush which was now clean, as Korra had bent the white paint out.

“Well, I’ve been holed away taking care-“ Korra started, then caught herself. Mako might have told everyone in the United Forces, but she doubted it, so for the minute, Kalla was still a secret. Korra’s heart wrenched as she thought of her daughter, but she pushed it down.

“Care of what?” Onia asked, carefully stroking the thin brush over the outline of Korra’s eyes.

“Care of my safety,” Korra finished unconvincingly.

“I can tell you’re lying,” Onia stated dryly. “I would ask, but it’s probably none of my business if you’re not telling the truth, so I’ll leave it.” Korra was warmly surprised by the gesture and took a moment or two before she gave her response.

“Thanks,” she replied.

“No bother,” Onia said, and only her took a minute and a half more to finish with the red. Korra opened her eyes, and looked at the finished product.

“You know, it does look pretty badass,” she commented, turning her head to see the different angles in the ice mirror.

“You like it?” Onia asked.

“Yeah!” Korra responded.

“Good, because oil-based paint doesn’t wash off for a few days, even with water,” Onia revealed. “It’s pretty embarrassing if you get it wrong.”

“A few days?” Korra repeated. “That’s so long!” She looked at herself in the mirror again. “But at least it looks cool.”

“Lovely,” Onia said, clasping Korra on the shoulder. “In that case, we’ll head back to the shrine now. Hopefully it triggers something.”

“Hopefully,” Korra repeated, and they walked back to the hut, Korra melting the ice mirror into the grass. As they walked inside, shutting the door behind them, Ty Lee and Ursa sat up in their chairs.

“It suits you,” Ty Lee complemented. “Maybe you can stay and pretend to be a warrior. We could certainly use an airbender, with our fans.”

“Aren’t the Kyoshi Warriors supposed to be primarily non-benders?” Korra asked. She knew it was a joke, but her curiosity was spiked.

“Nonsense, we don’t handicap our warriors!” Ursa told Korra. “Granted, only two out of all thirty-seven of us can bend, and three if you count the airbender that left for Air Temple Island all those years ago, but we’ll defend ourselves however possible.”

“That makes sense,” Korra murmured, and noticed Kyoshi’s clothes, boots and fans all laid neatly on a table. She walked over to them, and stood there awkwardly, staring at her feet.

“It’s fine,” Ursa said. “I don’t mind you wearing her clothes, I just had to think about it for a minute, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“No, it’s not that,” Korra said, blushing madly in embarrassment of what she was about to say. “It’s just, emm, I, uh… is it okay if you leave while I get changed?”

“What?” Onia said, amused. “Are you twelve or something? It’s fine, we’re all women here.”

“No,” Korra stammered. She’d hated explaining it to people she didn’t know. “The thing is, I like men and women, so it’d be the same as getting changed in front of a guy, for me. If you could leave again, that’d be greatly appreciated.”

“We’d probably have to leave anyway, let’s not make any trouble of it,” Ty Lee said immediately, not wanting to make a fuss. She carefully stood up, not extremely agile, and walked out the door. Onia rolled her eyes to Ursa, referring to Korra, as they followed Ty Lee. Korra breathed a sigh of relief. She started to get changed, and then glanced at the windows instinctively.

Korra jumped when she saw Onia’s face plastered against the glass. Onia’s roar of laughter travelled through the door, while pointing at Korra. Korra just put her shame behind her, pouting angrily, and continued to get changed. Onia didn’t play anymore tricks on her, thankfully, and after a minute Korra was ready. She adjusted the gold headpiece, and faced the painting once again, sitting down.

She relaxed, slowing her breathing to the bare minimum. She felt all the energy attached to Kyoshi’s huge clothes started to tingle. She started to get excited, but then quenched it. Korra felt energy from the entire island start to centre in the hut. She guided it mentally, imagining it all forming into the shape of Kyoshi, and displaying her body. It was intense, but after four minutes, she opened her eyes and saw the product of her work.

A murky blue mist stood in front of her, shimmying and sending out all kinds of different lights. Korra thought she recognised Kyoshi’s face in there, but it was very vague. The mist continued to swirl uncertainly for another minute, so Korra doubled down on her efforts, breathing hard. She rejected Raava rising up within her, as she was absolute in the notion that she didn’t need to go into the Avatar State. Sweat started to trickle down her forehead, and mixed in with the still-drying paint. Korra kept on trying to put a better shape on the mist, but after twelve minutes, just as she was about to collapse in exhaustion, it burst, and Korra fell back onto the floor, panting deep and hard.

“What am I doing wrong!?” she shouted to herself. She heard a knock on the door. “Come in,” she called.

“No luck?” Ursa asked immediately as she came in.

“I got something,” Korra told her. “But it wasn’t nearly enough. I put all my effort into it, but there just wasn’t enough energy. It doesn’t add up, this is the most spiritual place from Kyoshi’s lifetime, and I mustered every last drop of energy I could find! But fuck all happened!”

“I think I might have an idea,” Ursa suggested. “If what you told us back in the visitors’ room is true, then it’s actually quite simple what you’re forgetting.”

“I’d love to hear it,” Korra said, still lying on the ground. “That was exhausting.”

“In that case, I think there might be two different ways,” Ursa said. “You talked to Avatar Aang in the spirit world, didn’t you? So why don’t you just meditate into the spirit world and try talk to Kyoshi there?”

“Good thinking,” Korra acknowledged, “but Aang only sought me out because he felt obliged to inform me about a few things as my predecessor. I’m pretty sure he specifically said that I’d have to go to sentimental locations of previous Avatars, and his first example was Kyoshi Island. So thanks, but I wouldn’t bet on it. What’s the other option?”

“You mentioned how Aang only appeared to you,” Ursa reminded her, “after you created a third portal, and that you shut it when running away, so maybe there’s not enough spiritual energy in the world to summon Kyoshi. Have you talked to any other Avatars ever since you did that?”

Korra mused over what Ursa had suggested, and then shot up. She stumbled over in Kyoshi’s oversized boots, and shook Ursa rigorously.

“That’s it!” Korra practically shouted. “You’re right, it was so obvious, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before! I was struggling to gather enough energy around, and that’s why! I’ll meditate into the spirit world and reopen the portal from there! You’re a genius!”

“Just happy to help however I can,” Ursa replied, smiling awkwardly. “Will we leave again, or can we stay inside?”

“You can stay inside,” Korra said, ecstatic. “Just watch over my body while I’m meditating. I shouldn’t take too long, but just to be safe.” Korra nearly fell over in getting back to her original spot, but didn’t bother facing the painting. 

Korra calmed herself once more, and after a few minutes, her eyes started glowing blue. A small gem, which had been placed in the middle of Kyoshi’s headpiece, after she died, also shone.

“It’s just like the pictures,” Onia murmured, staring, then turned to Ursa. “You’re really sharp.”

“Thanks,” Ursa replied, not really paying attention, also staring at Korra. She’d known exactly what it would look like, but it was still awe-inspiring to see the glow in real life.

“Ladies, I know that it’s very pretty,” Ty Lee’s voice cut through the silence that followed, “but it’s for the best if we make sure that no-one comes in. I’ll keep an eye on her body, as I won’t be much help physically. Just sit outside the door, as so not attract attention.”

“Yes, of course!” Onia answered, snapping out of her gaze, and quickly walked out the door. Ursa followed her a moment later, shutting it behind her. Ty Lee just walked over to her chair in the corner, and watched Korra. It was indeed very fascinating.

Korra opened her eyes, in the spirit world now, and looked around. She was in the middle of a barren field that she didn’t recognise. She was still dressed in Kyoshi’s clothes, as she thought she would have. She saw a couple of spirits wandering around aimlessly, but other than that, she was alone. Korra closed her eyes and imagined the field where she’d first came out with Asami.

Negative memories started to flood her mind about her ex, but Korra had gotten pretty good at shutting them out by now, and stopping the train of regret that had followed in the past. She felt herself whizzing past landscapes in an instant, but made sure to keep her mind on the destination. It only took about twenty seconds, and when she arrived, the pretty pink flowers were a nice greeting. 

Korra shuffled a few metres to the closed portal in her large boots, and prepared herself mentally. It was going to pump her up with spiritual energy, and she had to keep a lid on it. She couldn’t bend, but it was still just better to keep it contained regardless.

Korra placed a hand on the glowing rim, and urged the power that was floating around inside to penetrate upwards. Immediately, a hole at the top formed and Korra took slow, deep breaths as the beacon that shot out got wider. Her eyes glowed blue, and mentally she ticked off that she could still go into the normal Avatar State if she wanted when her vision tinted blue. She continued with the task, and felt a huge surge of energy when she finally took her hand off after reopening the portal fully.

Korra fell down on one knee as she felt Raava and Vaatus’ energy pulse much, much harder than before. She wanted to let them just sort it out themselves, as each fought for dominance inside her, but she didn’t dare give them the chance, and put all her willpower into calming their energies. It took her a few minutes, but she managed it, and sat down for a breather. 

It looked easy enough, just put a hand on the portal and go into the Avatar State, but opening the portal was a massive drain on her. She pondered how she managed to do it while pregnant.

“It’s exactly how I remember it,” a man on the other side of the portal (in the spirit world) said suddenly, and Korra snapped out of her daze. Behind her, she heard a few spirits starting to speak up:

“Why did the Avatar open it again without consulting us?”

“Is that Avatar Kyoshi?”

“I’m gonna give that human an earful the next time she comes here!” another one said.

“No thanks,” Korra muttered, and vanished. She waited the momentary lapse where her spirit returned to her body, and then opened her eyes, back in Kyoshi’s Shrine. Ty Lee was just sitting there in the corner patiently, with the Kyoshi Warriors presumably outside.

“You’re back!” Ty Lee said happily, getting up, but not too quickly. “How did it go?”

“Mission accomplished,” Korra informed her, standing up and already feeling the difference in the room around her. No, in the clothes she was wearing. They were emanating tons of energy, and she felt ready to try again.

“Brilliant,” Ty Lee said, and very slowly walked over to the door.

 _All this moving around is taking a lot out of her,_ Korra realised _. She’s probably lucky not to have a walking stick at her age_.

“Let me help,” Korra offered, but Ty Lee waved her away with a smile.

“I’m still able to support my own weight,” she laughed. “You should have seen me back in my glory days, I was a top acrobat.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” Korra said quickly.

“Apology accepted,” Ty Lee said without a bother, and opened the door. Ursa and Onia looked inside, and Korra gave them the thumbs up. They both nodded in understanding, and kindly shut the door after Ty Lee had gone out.

“Third time lucky,” Korra mumbled to herself, sat down in the Lotus Position and faced the painting once more. She reached out spiritually, and was overwhelmed by the energy all rushing towards her at once. 

Korra spent only forty seconds organising it, and then focused it yet again on the small space in front of her. She honed it as perfectly as she could, and when she opened her eyes, a sense of satisfaction washed over her.

“Kyoshi,” Korra greeted.

“Korra,” Kyoshi greeted back.


	26. Kyoshi's Wisdom

“Kyoshi.”

“Korra.”

“It’s so good to meet you!” Korra exclaimed, excited. “I’ve got a million questions I’ve been dying to ask you!”

“This… this isn’t like before,” Kyoshi realised immediately. “This isn’t Raava. How did you summon me without Raava?”

“I used the extra power from the new spirit portal to summon your spirit,” Korra told the mirage sitting in front of her. “Aang told me how to.”

“A new spirit portal?” Kyoshi asked. “What do you mean ‘new’?”

“Don’t you know?” Korra asked, surprised. “You’re a spirit, surely you would’ve felt it.”

“My soul has been resting on this island ever since I died, and I’ve only been woken up to give guidance to other Avatars,” Kyoshi told Korra. “Creating a new spirit portal sounds like a huge task. If you really managed to do that, well done.”

“Thanks,” Korra said. “Practically no-one in Republic City is happy with it though, apart from the Air Nation, so I’ve gone through a lot of trouble because of it, and now the spirits want me to close it. So, it’s nice to hear someone actually complement me on it.”

“I merely meant that it was an extraordinary feat of power,” Kyoshi corrected herself. “I don’t suppose you can make it vanish, if it’s so unpopular? You are capable of closing it, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Korra said, “but in order to talk to you, I needed to open it. I tried as many different ways as possible, but in the end, this was the only one that worked.”

“In that case, talk,” Kyoshi told her. “I don’t want to be woken up every time you’re at a crossroads, so let it all out now. What’s the issue you’re dealing with?”

“First of all…” Korra started, then tried to decide which one was most urgent. “First of all, my Avatar spirit is corrupted. I tore open a new portal because there was a giant spirit laser tearing up Republic City, and I just tried to redirect the power. But it also recharged Vaatu in a way, and now, him and Raava are constantly struggling against each other in my body. I can’t think of any way to get rid of Vaatu again, so I thought you might have an idea.”

“I thought something was wrong,” Kyoshi mentioned. “That… is a _massive_ problem. I almost never mediated into the spirit world back in my day, so I honestly can’t give you much advice on that alone. Has he shown himself? Is there any effect on the Avatar State?”

“Yes,” Korra answered. “I didn’t sense it at all until a few days ago in the South Pole, but when I became furious at a general, I went into the Avatar State, except my eyes glowed red this time. I beat an army into submission. I lost my self-control while doing it, but, the thing is… it felt so right. I don’t know if I could’ve stopped it, but I didn’t even try.”

“I know the story of Raava and Vaatu well,” Kyoshi said. “But you had mastered the Avatar State by the time we were severed, hadn’t you?”

“Yeah, and I’m completely in sync with Raava now,” Korra told Kyoshi. “I don’t know if it’s a discipline issue, or something else. Did you ever lose control of yourself when you first tried to master the Avatar State?”

“Yes,” Kyoshi admitted. “I let my emotions get the better of me multiple times, and misused the Avatar State to express my anger when I was young. I almost never remembered it when I lost control, and when I did, it was always very vague. But you described it as if you knew what was happening, but let it go on. Am I right?”

“He dropped my daughter carelessly,” Korra explained. “And they all defended him by attacking me, so I just let them have it.”

“Hmm,” Kyoshi said, thinking hard. After a moment, she said; “I would say that if you were using Raava’s light, what you did could be looked at as an abuse of power. But the natural order of Vaatu is anarchy, as is order to Raava. If you really have mastered the Avatar State, you wouldn’t have gone into it so emotional. So therefore, I would hazard a guess that Vaatu influenced your rational thinking to a degree. You may never get rid of his spirit for all I know, but he can mostly likely be tamed, and controlled with your will. But you still must assume responsibility for what happened. If you don’t, then it will become a habit, blaming all your problems on Vaatu. You have to get a hold on this problem as soon as possible.”

“Do you really think I can do that?” Korra asked. “He fed off my negative emotions, how I can I stay positive all the time?”

“Develop strict self-discipline,” Kyoshi answered. “Fasting is a good way to do it. You always had the tenacity to face your problems head on before. The only shackles you have as the Avatar are the ones you place on yourself.”

“Ok,” Korra began, taking a few seconds to memorise Kyoshi’s advice. “That actually brings me on to another question. I’ve learnt how to use bloodbending, which is illegal, and in the past year I’ve used it on a few occasions. One was against a gang when I couldn’t use the Avatar State, as I was pregnant. But as soon as all the law enforcement heard about it, they kept a watch on me, and caught me doing it again. They tried to arrest me, but I escaped. That’s why I was fighting an army in the South Pole a few days ago. They were trying to capture me.”

“What’s your question?” Kyoshi pointed out.

“My question,” Korra said, “is… is it okay to use bloodbending? The second time was purely a mistake, I just tried to reach out for my then-girlfriend when she was walking away, but I still did it.”

“You finally realised it, huh?” Kyoshi commented. “Took you long enough.”

“Realised what?” Korra said.

“That you like women too,” Kyoshi said. “You were nearly an adult and didn’t know by the time we were severed.”

“That I like women?” Korra repeated. “Oh, I’ve known for over a year now. But I really need someone like you to answer my question on bloodbending. Not many people can help me on this”

“Very well,” Kyoshi said. “However, it is a stupid question, although if you’re being hunted across the world, I suppose you might be a little confused.”

“What do you mean stupid?” Korra asked, slightly insulted.

“Bending is not evil, nor righteous,” Kyoshi explained. “It simply exists, just like poison. Bending has been misused for unnecessary wars too many times to count, but back when it was first granted to us humans, it was to defend ourselves in the wild, like a poisonous slug. Poison is only produced by the slug naturally to ward off predators, as the Avatar State is a defence mechanism to protect the Avatar. 

“Bloodbending, as you describe its public standing today, could be compared to firebending not even eighty years ago, in the earth kingdom or water tribes. Or lavabending in my day. Just an expression of bending. But the general misuse of bloodbending for the wrong purposes, like Yakone with Aang, or Amon with yourself, has shunned its users.”

“So you’re saying bloodbending is good?” Korra asked.

“It has generally been used for the wrong purposes,” Kyoshi corrected her. “But in the instance of when that man Tarrlok used it to subdue you is a good example. He may have had bad intentions in general, but he just used bloodbending to stop you from using firebending to give him third degree burns. He didn’t abuse his power, he only brought it out as a last resort. The exact same way the Avatar State is intended.”

“So, when I used it against the Triads, that was okay because I had no other option, and it was acceptable because they were going to kill me?” Korra asked, understanding what Kyoshi meant by Tarrlok bloodbending her.

“Right on the money,” Kyoshi told her. “But when you bloodbent your ex-girlfriend, that was wrong. I would give you a pass on that one if it were up to me, seeing as you couldn’t control it, but the consequences of that are evident, regardless of whether or not you meant well. No bending is evil, no matter how dangerous. The bender themselves determine that.”

“That is so much more helpful than you can possibly imagine,” Korra told Kyoshi sincerely. Korra had just been given an unbiased answer, and it gave her so much confidence.

“If you need me to say it, you should explore the other elements as well,” Kyoshi stated, and suddenly a memory which Korra hadn’t thought about too much popped up. 

The words Kyoshi had just uttered were the exact same as Zaheer’s. And even though Korra hated to admit it, all the recent events pointed to the notion that Zaheer had maybe been right, especially if such a strong Avatar was on the same wavelength as him. Granted, Zaheer did abuse his airbending, but both Zaheer and Kyoshi were very intelligent people, and didn’t say anything without considering it carefully.

“I’ll… think about it,” Korra said. “But, there’s more I need to tell you. You see, when he dropped my daughter, Kalla, I went into Avatar State using Vaatu, with red eyes, and smashed him into a wall. But when I had returned to normal and was holding my baby, he threatened my dad’s life. I went back into the Avatar State with Vaatu, but I would’ve used Raava if not to follow through on what I was going to do. I separated him from my dad with bloodbending, and then, in my rage, I consciously took away his firebending.”

“You were able to energybend while infuriated?” Kyoshi asked, surprised. “Wouldn’t that have back-fired?”

“No, I used bloodbending to do it. I got a few pointers on how to go about it, but I figured out most of it by myself,” Korra told the image of the massive woman. Kyoshi’s eyes widened, the only change in her expression the entire conversation so far.

“That’s remarkable!” she complemented, amazed. The she resumed her neutral expression a second later. “But you don’t know if that was an abuse of your power or not?”

“That’s right,” Korra confirmed. “I partially did it to scare away anyone else that might try to attack my family for being close to me, but I wanted to make him hurt so bad.”

“Well,” Kyoshi started, choosing about her words carefully. “I can tell you, without a doubt, that if anyone had hurt my child, I may very well have killed them. While I don’t think that taking away a person’s bending is a power that you should use without heavy consideration, it was a good decision in that case. You would know better than me on this anyway. You had your bending taken away yourself, so you have personal experience. If it was only to protect your parents and your daughter, you, especially as a mother, have the right to use whatever power you can to protect her. But I warn you – always keep perspective, otherwise, you are not serving your duty as the Avatar.”

“I will,” Korra promised, then waited a moment before asking her next question. “I’m not sure if you’ve already answered this, but I don’t want to be second-guessing you later. Only the people that are close to me don’t want me in jail, and even with that, I’ve pushed away some of my best friends in one way or another. There was a whole army sent after me because of the laws I broke, but I’ve ran away from the law time and time again. Should I turn myself in, and face the consequences of disobeying the law, or keep running?”

“You’ve matured greatly from the hot-head teenager I remember,” Kyoshi acknowledged with a smile. “I suppose being a mother will do that to you too.”

“It’s been on my mind for longer than that,” Korra told her.

“Yes, it probably has,” Kyoshi agreed. “It has always been the Avatar's sole duty to serve the people, and you must always hold that highest in your priorities. Otherwise, we would be no more than a glorified dictator, using our divine power to hand out judgement, if we didn’t respect that fact. But the harsh truth is, you can’t always be the good guy. Sometimes, you have to do what no-one else will do, even if it hurts you to think about doing it, even if you will be the scapegoat afterwards. 

“If you don’t act when you have the chance to stop a problem, the rash will spread. Avatar Roku is a perfect example. He was a good man, but he let his personal friendship with Fire Lord Sozin blind him. He spared Sozin because of their previous friendship, but it came back and he has forever felt guilty about the 100-Year-War.”

“Are you suggesting that I kill my friends if they try to detain me?” Korra challenged, ready to dispute with Kyoshi.

“No, Roku is an extreme case,” Kyoshi cleared up. “But you know better than anyone else alive the dilemmas of being the Avatar and serving all people. At the same time, you have to back what you believe is right. Do not become a puppet to world leaders for fear of being ostracized.”

“But I have become ostracized, and now I’m unable to show my face at my own home-city!” Korra argued. “How can I go about serving people if they want me locked up?”

“There was a time when the Earth King tried to have me locked up for disobeying him, when I was the only person who could stop the uprising in Ba Sing Sae,” Kyoshi started.

“I’ve heard the story before,” Korra told her. “It’s the most commonly told story about you.”

“You may not have heard all the details,” Kyoshi informed Korra, and the water-tribe woman tilted her head. “He tried to force me to do his bidding, but I forced him to cower and respect my opinion. He was only looking out for the Upper Ring, but I submissed him into granting basic rights to the peasants. If I let myself be taken away to prison, they would’ve rioted throughout Ba Sing Sae without restraint. I can guarantee you that, if you turn yourself in now, a crisis will emerge that only you have the power to stop, and it will leave you aching with regret when you can’t do anything about it.”

“What are you trying to get across?” Korra asked, not really getting the way Kyoshi was phrasing her sentences.

“Rulers of all kinds must obey your authority as the Avatar, whether they like it or not,” Kyoshi stated, loud and clear. “They all come crawling back eventually when they realise that an Avatar was put on the planet for a reason. If they won’t admit it, the people will.”

“What if there’s a war going on, and I’m told to keep out of it?” Korra asked, trying to get a good grasp of Kyoshi’s logic.

“Then you are obliged as the Avatar to stop it. You were given the power to sustain peace and order. If you pretend that it’s not your problem, then you are embodying Vaatu’s purpose of existence; chaos and violence. Like I said before, you will have to make hard decisions in your life. It is your fate. Tyrants will thrive on your passiveness otherwise.”

“So, should I go killing whoever I find guilty?” Korra asked, not fully convinced by Kyoshi yet. “That’s just being a tyrant itself.”

“Only if absolutely necessary,” Kyoshi told her. “But Aang revolutionised the role of the Avatar, and you have the ability to uphold his legacy. He knew that taking away one’s bending was a violation worse than any, less preferable than death to some, and he used it wisely. Only you can decide whether or not to use your power on those who may, or may not, deserve it. Therefore, you must be absolute in your conviction and its logic. This goes for all your decisions in general as well.”

Korra looked up at the ceiling, thinking deeply about what Kyoshi had told her. Kyoshi just waited there patiently, letting Korra mull it over. It was a lot to take it, but Korra had absorbed every word.

 _She’s talking from well over two hundred years of experience,_ Korra thought _. That’s what she’s concluded from her lifetime. I don’t know the next time I’ll get to talk to Kyoshi, if I ever do again. She knows better than me, who’s only been in the outside world for five years, and half of that hasn’t been serving anyone_.

“That was really, really helpful,” Korra told Kyoshi after a few minutes, and Kyoshi accepted the gratitude with a curt nod. Korra stood up. “You’ve helped me hammer in what it means to be the Avatar, or to remind myself, more so. I’m not flawless, but I’ll do what I think is best. I’ll accept advice from others, but I won’t let anyone force their political ideals on me. I’ll make the world leaders accept me, but not at the expense of the ordinary citizens. Thank you for your wisdom, Avatar Kyoshi.”

“Spot on,” Kyoshi said, and Korra began to walk to the door. “Wait,” she called out. “I have a request to make of you, if you don’t mind.”

“A favour?” Korra asked, twisting her body around. “Sure, what is it?”

“I reckon that since you connected with my spirit and summoned me here without Raava, that others will be capable of that too,” Kyoshi began. “Maybe only a few have the ability, but I wish not to be disturbed by anyone, other than the Avatar if they need guidance.”

“That’s fine,” Korra accepted, and started to keep walking.

“And a message. And a question for you as well,” Kyoshi added. Korra turned around fully.

“What else do you want me to tell them?” Korra asked.

“I want you to tell the Kyoshi Warriors that I’m aware of everything they’ve done, and I couldn’t be prouder to have them named after myself,” Kyoshi said clearly, and although she was a mirage, Korra could see the meaning in her eyes.

“Of course,” Korra said with a smile. “And what did you want to ask me?”

“What’s your plan? Where do you intend to go next?” Kyoshi questioned, more to get Korra thinking than for her own curiosity.

“I…” Korra trailed off, her mind blank for a few moments. But then one place appeared in her mind, and she knew at that moment that there was nowhere else she could even contemplate going, now that she had thought of it. “I know exactly where I want to go.”

“Where?” Kyoshi asked.

“Crescent Island,” Korra answered definitively.

“Ah, I see,” Kyoshi said. “That’s smart. You intend on speaking to Roku. It’s always good to get a variety of opinions.”

“Maybe I’ll do that too,” Korra said, raising an eyebrow from the mirage of Kyoshi. “But I’ve got a bigger reason than that. I’m going to take your advice on exploring all the different types of bending. I’m going to learn how to combustion bend.”


	27. From Bad to Worse

**Every chapter from now on will be roughly 5k words long, compared to 3k or 4k leading up to this point. Also, if you're wondering why I released seven chapters today, it's because I'm extremely grateful for the amount attention this has gotten. Thank you! Enjoy**

Mako glanced out of his window and looked at the beacon of light that was the spirit portal, protruding through the dull, grey city skyline. He wobbled and his vision swam as he fell down on his ass. He crawled over to the bottle of whiskey, and began to pour himself another shot. But to his dismay, only a few drops poured out of the bottle. He was leaning on one elbow, lying down on the floor, with his glass on the wooden floorboards. He had gotten rid of the carpet a while ago, as it’d smelt rank, and he wasn’t bothered to clean it. Mako shook the bottle rigorously, but nothing came out.

“Thas… thas weird,” he mumbled. “I swear this was nearly full earlier on. Stupih cunh!”

He pelted the empty bottle against the wall and it shattered loudly. Mako looked up at the ceiling, a clueless, drunk grin on his face. He rolled over, with a lot of effort, causing the whiskey in his stomach to churn and threaten to come up, but Mako was well used to it by this stage. He just dragged his body to the fridge, and struggled with opening it for a few seconds before remembering that he had to pull the handle. 

The commander did so lazily, and blinked when the blue light lit up what was mainly a dim apartment, only one lightbulb on to save energy. He gazed around the shelves one time, then forced himself to register it when he looked the second time. He wiped his long hair out of his eyes and ruffled his beard. Both were thick with dandruff.

“Whah tha fuck!” he shouted, looking at the sparse shelves. There was enough food to keep him going for the next four days, but the real problem was that he only had three beers left! “Where-“

Mako suddenly shook violently, and he moaned in pain as the alcohol tried to force its way up. He clutched at his stomach and fell down, rocking there silently as the cold air of the fridge washed over him, making his bare upper body shiver. He groggily got one knee up, then used the fridge to pull himself in a standing position. He trailed along the wall the entire way to the bathroom, instinctively closing the fridge while he was at it.

_It’s coming_ , Mako realised in his head. He wrenched the bathroom door open and wobbled to the toilet bowl. Mako retched, and retched, until after a minute, the whiskey poured out. He continued to groan as seven hundred millilitres of whiskey was emptied into the small pool of water over the course of forty-five minutes. 

Mako stayed stooped over, letting every last drop out until he was sure that there was none left. Then he curled up in a ball and stared at the pipes connecting to the toilet. He forced himself up, the euphoria of alcohol now having passed, and towards his bedroom door. But halfway there, he doubled over, and fell onto the table. It snapped under his weight. Mako lay there for the next few minutes, contemplating his next move while splinters stayed impaled in several different parts of his body.

_That’ll probably wreck tomorrow,_ he thought _. I’ll sleep on the couch again tonight. My back’s pretty sore from the last time, but it’s either that or on the floor._

Mako hauled himself up, a headache quickly beginning to form, and flopped into the couch on his front. He didn’t even bother getting a cushion to serve as a pillow, and just closed his eyes, as he started to drool. But one name kept creeping into his thoughts, no matter how much he’d tried to expel it. He’d come up with every logical solution on the planet to fit his argument, but it wouldn’t go away.

_This is Kalla, your daughter_ , the memory repeated over and over again, as Mako eventually drifted into a deep sleep.

* * *

Mako eyes flew open as he heard his alarm clock beeping. He felt like he’d just closed his eyes, but when he looked at the clock on his wall, his heart flipped. It read 9:30, and today was a Wednesday.

The former probender jumped off the couch, ignoring his searing headache, but his legs barely supported Mako. He hobbled into his room as quickly as possible, but nearly threw up on his bed.

Mako swallowed the bile back down, and grabbed the towel he had on his nightstand. He rubbed it furiously under his armpits and over his chest, just trying to get rid of any sweat. He was stupidly late already, and Beifong had given out to him at length over the last three months for numerous things. He’d worked out that she generally only started calling people in after ten, so maybe he could get away with this. He was making a bad habit out of being late.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” Mako murmured, pulling up his trousers and buttoning his coat. He hadn’t washed his uniform, or any of his spares, in the two weeks since he’d come back from the South Pole. Even with the general stench of his apartment, they smelt bad, which was saying something. He combed his long hair roughly to the side, and pulled some strands out accidentally. He cursed, but didn’t stop getting ready.

Mako found one black sock and a white sock and put them on without hesitation. He shoved his feet into his work shoes without doing the laces, and tugged viciously to get the back out from under his right heel. He grabbed twice what he needed for the bus off of the ground, and ran to the bathroom, retching once more, but nothing came out.

“The ride over is gonna be grim,” he said to himself, wiping his mouth with the hand towel. He was referring to how bumpy it was, mainly because of the roads. He jogged out of the bathroom and his apartment, not able to go any faster without getting sick, but when he was halfway down the stairs, he realised he’d forgot to lock the door after shutting it. He didn’t even have his keys, either.

“I’ve gotta risk it,” he muttered, and continued heading downstairs. He’d built up a strong tolerance to spirits over the last while, so he wasn’t nearly as badly hungover as most would be. He burst out the front doors thirty seconds later, and walked as fast as he could to the bus stop. When he got there, he was breathing heavily, more from wanting to throw up than exhaustion.

_There should be a bus coming at 9:40_ , he thought, straightening himself up and looking at the timetable, which was behind a thin screen of plastic. Except there was no timetable, just a notice slapped over it;

‘THE BUS WORKERS' UNION IS STRIKING FROM MONDAY TO SUNDAY IN ORDER TO CAMPAIGN FOR PROPER WAGES. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR HUMBLE CAUSE'

“You’re having a laugh,” Mako said aloud, then fuzzily remembered it being brought up in a meeting the other day in a broadcast to the entire HQ. It was just mentioned to let everyone know so that they could plan in advance to get up earlier.

“Well isn’t that just fucking convenient!” he shouted, and banged his fist on the notice. He got a few odd looks from the people around him, but he didn’t bother with them. He just started to run as fast as he could to the station, hoping that he could make it before ten.

Mako arrived seven minutes later, having only had to go into an alley to throw up once. He was still hungover. He shoved open the doors of the station and marched his way upstairs. When he got to his desk, he got a number of stares for his appearance, and one person, Emma, even put her hand over her nose because of the stench. He didn’t blame her though, and sat down quietly. There was a pile of sheets on his desk, a few from the day before which he’d left, and new ones that had come through that morning.

Mako started at the most urgent report of a break-in and started to flick through the pages. Nothing odd struck him, but after a few minutes, Weng, a detective who Mako didn’t know at all, walked up to Mako’s desk. He stood there awkwardly, trying to catch the firebender’s attention.

“I know I smell like shit,” Mako said, and then glanced up. “Weng? What do you want?”

“Yeah, Mako,” the short, fat man started, and put a hand on the desk. “Beifong was asking around for you earlier, yeah, and she was really angry when she realised you were late, so… just gonna leave that with you, but you should probably go in and see her.” Weng got off the desk, clearly uncomfortable being the bearer of bad news. Mako just sat there for a moment, his head in his hands, and groaned.

“I fuckin' knew this would happen,” he muttered, and rubbed his temples. “If I wait longer, I’ll probably just get more nervous. Better to get it over with quickly.”

“I think she’s in a good mood at the minute,” Weng said, although he was clearly just guessing. “If you go into her now, you might get off a little easier. Maybe.” With that, Weng walked away, glad to have gotten it over with. He wasn’t friends with Mako, but he sure did feel sorry for the firebender.

“I can’t avoid her,” Mako said, and stood up. Numerous pairs of eyes darted towards him as his chair scraped against the floor. He slowly trudged around, taking his time for the fifteen-metre walk. He felt like a guilty child who’d just been caught stealing. “Maybe she won’t mind,” he tried to reassure himself.

Mako knocked on the door, and heard Beifong’s voice stop chattering momentarily to beckon him in. He nudged open the door and slid in, silently shutting it behind him. Beifong looked behind her from facing the window, having a heated argument with whoever was on the other end of the phone. She took one glance and glared at Mako. She angrily jabbed to the chair opposite her desk, and Mako sat in it wordlessly. 

_She is not in a good mood_ , he thought, and seven minutes later, she slammed the phone back into its holder.

“You’ve crossed the line yet again!” Beifong started, and he gulped. “And I can smell you! How much effort is it to take a shower before you go to work? It’s certainly not like you don’t have the money for it! I specifically remember you being so happy that you were able to buy an apartment with the money from escorting Wu!”

“Sorry, Chief,” he apologised, looking at the ground. “I didn’t think to shower.”

“Bollocks!” Beifong called him out. “You were drinking again last night, weren’t you? I told you when I caught you on the way back from the South Pole, that if you were drinking on a work-night again, you’d be demoted, and now I have no good reason to not follow through on my threat!”

“Demo… you’re not serious?” Mako asked, looking at Beifong. His heartrate started to pick up.

“I am dead serious!” Beifong stated. “And quite frankly, you’re not doing anything to help yourself in the slightest! This is the third time in two weeks that you have been late, to mention one of a number of things, and you’ve shown exactly zero remorse for what you’ve done. It’s been going on for what’s coming up to a year! Your reports have consistently been handed in past the deadline, you’ve let sixteen criminals get away from you, and only caught three! And even then, they were all just for petty theft!

“You were so bright when you first came in,” Beifong continued, “going back to your big breakthrough, when you exposed Verek. You were level-headed, and professional. After you came back from escorting Wu, you still showed that desire, and I decided to promote you to commander. But there have been a lot of angry complaints about you, starting after Hazukk Arahonov left the city. Your ambition dropped off a cliff ever since we found you lying there unconscious! Well, know this, you’re going to have to work twice as hard as before to get promoted again, because I will seriously consider any bonus you get in the future. As of this instant, you are a detective!”

Mako gaped speechlessly at Beifong, but her statement was emphasised by his commander badge zooming out from his pocket and pinging onto Beifong’s hand. She opened a drawer, dropped the prestigious proof of authority, and shoved the drawer shut. She pulled open a filing cabinet at the far end of the room using metalbending, and a different badge flew over to her hand. She caught it, and slammed it on the desk in front of Mako ruthlessly. A regular detective’s badge.

“Come on, Chief, just one more chance!” Mako urged, finding his voice now. “I know I haven’t been great recently but-but-but, I’ve still got a passion for this job! Please, just one more chance!”

“I’ve already warned you three times before this,” Beifong said coldly. “I was being patient before. Now leave my office, and get back to work. You probably noticed that all the new reports aren’t as high ranking.”

“This is crazy!” Mako argued, standing up in protest, but couldn’t find a solid reason why Beifong should take back her decision. “When did you decide this? Who told you to?!”

“Leave my office right this instant!” Beifong ordered, rising to meet him. “You have no authority to question my choices around here! Get back to work before you run yourself into more trouble!”

Mako’s head spun trying to process the information, his hangover still very strong. He looked down at the junior badge in front of him, and he rubbed his eyes. Then, in a moment of madness, he pushed it back. Beifong took a second to take in what Mako had just done. Then, she made eye-contact with him, and there was cold murder reaching out for him from her steely glare.

“Mako,” she began in a calm tone with underlying disgust, “I can pretend I didn’t see that, and I will give you one final chance to put your pride in the rear view, and go back to your desk. If you don’t, I will fire you right here and now. I’ve always admired how much of a level head you have shown at times when a leader is needed. But clearly, alcohol has influenced your rational decision-making. I want an answer now.”

Mako slowed his rapid breathing down, and tried to remove emotion from the equation. But his head was hurting too much to do anything other than urge him to protect his ego. He, as a firebender, knew better than most how to control his temper. But just at that moment, something snapped. All the stress of the last eight months, and the last two weeks in particular. All the guilt that he had been harbouring about secretly thinking that it was his fault for Korra being run out of the city. It wasn’t logical, but he just never was able to believe it was anyone else's fault, even if Hazukk was the one to expose Korra.

“I’m not backing down from this!” he declared, all of his emotions turn to rage, centring on Lin Beifong.

“Is that a no?” she asked to be sure.

“Absolutely!” Mako stated, and Lin Beifong did her trademark sigh, resting her forehead on her right hand and her left hand supporting her right elbow.

“Get out of my sight! You’re fired, Mako, and don’t come crawling back!” she snapped emphatically, and crossed her arms. Mako, however, didn’t get out of her sight.

“You're a stubborn old woman!” he shouted impulsively, and pointed a finger at her right up in her face. “You don’t know what you’re doing! I’m way too valuable to be laying off just like-“

The clap of Lin Beifong’s hand off of Mako’s cheek echoed around the office as she knocked his pointing hand down with her left hand, and slapped him in the face with her right. He fell down to the ground in an instant, the force of it stinging badly. He looked up at her, holding his cheek. She spat on him.

“The audacity of you!” she berated, as if she was his mother. “If you don’t leave now, I’ll have you thrown out by the guards! And don’t even think about going anywhere near me with that finger again, or I’ll get you in shit. They may not believe you when it comes to stories without evidence, but they sure as well will believe me! Good riddance, I should’ve done this ages ago, if this was your real attitude!”

Mako sat there, his anger now evaporating into shame. It was cheesy, but she had literally slapped sense into him, and that had just been her bare palm, no metal or anything. He slowly got up, and wordlessly left the office, his tail between his legs. When he opened the door, the room was silent, all eyes on him. He quietly walked to his desk, absorbing all the looks.

_They must have heard me shouting back_ , he reckoned. He tried to look for someone to complain to, someone to talk to, but only then did he realise when looking around the room, that he had no friends there. He had alienated everyone over the last while. Even Weng, who was the nicest guy there, had barely ever socialised with Mako, because he’d rejected them all.

He walked behind his desk, and opened the second highest drawer on the left. He grabbed the money he left there for lunch, ninety-three yuans, and put them in his pocket. He walked away, leaving everything else behind. He didn’t need any of it anymore.

“Bye,” he said as he was walking out, too embarrassed to look back. He walked down the corridor to the stairs, feeling nostalgic, knowing it would be his last time coming down the route. He thumped down the stairs, getting strange looks, but ignored them all. 

Mako moped all the way out to the doors, and kicked them open. He got a few scowls, but no-one said anything. He just continued to walk away. When he had left the station behind a corner, out of his view, the reality of what had just occurred smacked him in the face.

He was fired. Dirty, smelly, reeked of sweat, unemployed, and now truly alone. Mako leaned against a wall, contemplating what he’d just done. He had challenged Lin fucking Beifong on an order, and shoved his finger in her face. He was an alcoholic. He looked homeless despite having served as a personal bodyguard to the then-successor of the Earth Kingdom. He’d gotten the better of the strongest bloodbender ever heard of, yet now, he was washed up. He didn’t have much money saved up in the bank due to the excessive amount he’d wasted on drinks. A clip of a conversation he had played millions of times over in his head, the second last one he’d ever had with Hazukk;

_During those lonely days in the hospital, I was the only one who visited you,_ his voice bounded around Mako’s head. His head skipped to another part of the conversation.

_I’ve been busy with work_ , Mako’s voice replied.

_Bollocks_! Hazukk's voice called him out. _You’re the spitting image of Lin Beifong, no friends, so you’re forced to pull rank to gain respect from your peers_!

“But at least Beifong has a job,” Mako muttered, feeling hollow inside. “And as for peers, I don’t even have any, anymore.” He kept on walking, the pain becoming more and more apparent. The worries and stress of the last eight months started to leak out from the large gaps in the mental wall that was his heart, but he forced it all back in.

Mako walked through the streets, stopping at a corner shop. He spotted a Desert Oasis beer in there, and even though he was still hungover, he craved it. He walked in, and bought the can. Just one. Mako didn’t know why he only got one, but he wasn’t in the mood for resisting his cravings. He moodily thanked the shopkeeper, no real emotion behind it, and let his feet carry him wherever they wanted.

Mako walked for an hour, across Kyoshi Bridge, and eventually wound up just in front of the spirit portal. He sat down on a bench, just out of the reach of the vines, and stared at the pretty beacon. A homeless man sat down beside him, although there wasn’t much difference to any onlookers.

“Pretty nice, huh?” he greeted, taking out a cigarette and lighting it. Mako opened his can, which had been shut up until this point, and took a sip.

“Very nice,” Mako agreed.

“Rough day?” he asked, very friendly. “The wife shout at ya? Kick you out? I got a divorce, and she took everything. Now I’m just a bum. No money, nothing.”

“Really?” Mako said, disinterested. “Sounds like a shit one.” He could’ve mentioned his past on the streets, but Mako really didn’t care less about this man.

“Yeah!” the guy said, not getting the message. “I like to spend a lot of time here, helps takes my troubles away.”

“That’s good,” Mako said nonchalantly. He took longer sip from his drink, and exhaled heavily, as if all his worries would disappear with it. They didn’t.

“What do you do for fun?” he asked, really hanging on to the conversation. He probably doesn’t have many, Mako realised. A bit like me.

“I’ve started drinking badly,” Mako relented. “I want to stop, but it’s just, there’s no reason for me not to.”

“You’re not alone, buddy,” he reassured Mako, and patted him on the shoulder. “We’ve all had those problems.”

“Are you a dealer?” Mako asked bluntly. “Because I’m not taking anything, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Oh, no, no, no,” the man said, putting his hands up. “You just looked worried, that’s all. I’ve had my fair share of stress over the past few years, in fact, I used to be snorting coke at every chance I could get!”

“What about now?” Mako asked, tired, for the sake of being mannerly, ironically. If it had been yesterday, he would’ve prodded for the man’s dealer, but now he just didn’t give a shit. Even though he had shot himself in the foot when arguing with Beifong, he still felt a tiny bit of anger. It was 95% regret though.

“Well,” the man started, and Mako rubbed his eyes with impatience. “I was doing it for about two and a half years, ya know, and I was a miserable wretch of a human being. I hated to even look at myself in the reflection of the river in the park!”

“Mm hmm,” Mako hummed.

“One day, when I sobered up, I went up to a guy and asked him if he had any coke I could borrow. But when I shook him, because he didn’t reply, he was stone cold dead! I hadn’t seen my children in four years by this point, the wife had fucked off to Yu Dao with them for some businessman.”

“That’s… really sad,” Mako appreciated, actually meaning it.

“I know,” the man continued. “But a few months ago, I overheard a story from a couple of Air Nomads not too far from here, and they were talking about the 'Tree of Time' and stuff like that. I just decided to listen, and they said that it would restore your entire memory if you mediated inside. I’d never been a big believer of that spirity-talk for most of my life, but after that crazy giant spirit battle, I’ll believe just about anything!”

Mako sat up at the mention of 'memory'. His mind flashed back to those words Korra had said to him back at the South Pole.

_You probably don’t remember, huh_? her voice told him. He turned and faced the homeless man full on. The man raised an eyebrow, then accepted the attention with delight.

“I decided to give it a shot, since I hardly had anything better to do,” he reminisced. “So, I walked into the spirit portal, just imagining this big, old tree, and when I appeared on the other side of the portal, I could see the two original spirit portals. Both of them!”

“I’ve been there too,” Mako added. His full attention was on this man now. The beer can was left alone, nearly full, in Mako’s hand as the man told his story.

“So, I walked up to the twisty old tree in between them, and this gorilla-monkey thing at the entrance sensed my emotions, and he told me some spirity mumbo-jumbo, you know the type. But anyway, I walked into the tree, and all my memories started flooding back. Good, bad, average, everything! So I sat down and mediated, and focused on the good ones, because I hadn’t felt genuinely happy in so long!”

“And what happened?!” Mako urged, leaning closer, and the guy’s voice rose as he came to the climax of his story.

“I remembered all these distant memories of my little girls,” he said, beaming with joy. “All the happy times. Oh, when I walked out, I felt enlightened! I know it sounds cheesy, but after that day I vowed to never, ever do coke again. I will see my girls again one day, I know I will, and I will not let them think that their father has become some kind of junky!”

“All these distant memories,” Mako repeated. “You remembered ‘all these distant memories’.” He shot up off the bench, despite his legs having been wrecked just a few minutes ago. “Thank you so, so much, sir!” He shook the man’s hand vigorously.

“Leaving so soon, stranger?” he asked disappointedly, but when he saw the look in Mako’s eyes, he smiled. “You have something you need to remember?”

“Yes! Thank you!” Mako agreed, and he shoved the can back in his pocket. He sploshed around and spilt a tiny bit, but he didn’t care. He bade farewell to the kind stranger, and marched determinedly up to the portal. He stared at the bright yellow light for a moment, then stepped inside.

Mako emerged a few seconds later out of the same portal that he’d exited to the South Pole back at Harmonic Convergence. He spotted the tree, and belted towards it, his drink staining the inside of his trousers and running down his leg, but he still didn’t care. He arrived at the tree a minute later, fairly out of breath. He hadn’t done any exercise recently to counter the amount of drink he was taking in, so he was very unfit. Just as he was about to enter into the tree, a chimpanzee-lion appeared in front of him.

“What do you think you’re doing, filthy human?!” it demanded, pushing Mako away from the entrance. “Why do you wish to enter the Tree of Time, the roots of which connect the mortal and spiritual world?”

“A woman says that I’m the father of her daughter,” Mako confessed immediately. “But I can’t remember. So I need to go inside this tree and see if what she said is true.” The spirit regarded him warily for a moment, but then seemed to sense that Mako’s claim was authentic. They stared off for a minute anyway, Mako only pleading for admission while the spirit pondered whether or not to grant it to him.

“You may enter,” it allow eventually, and Mako let out a sigh. “But don’t you dare vandalise anything! I’ll know!”

“Of course not,” Mako replied, and it disappeared with a harrumph. “Thank you!” he called out, then climbed into the tree.

Instantly, dozens upon dozens upon dozens of memories flooded his head, but he couldn’t pick put the one that he was looking for. So he sat down, and concentrated hard. Harder. He went back eleven months, and suddenly a forgotten memory of Korra showed itself. Her strolling in his door and arguing with him, before putting her hands up. Mako spurred the memory on, and it showed them starting to drink. Drinking a lot. The shot glasses came out. They started pushing each other.

Mako gasped as he remembered the entire night fully. All the suspicions and denials suddenly faded away as it all played out. He watched it fully, not sure what to think, as the proof that Mako was indeed the father of Korra’s daughter showed itself.

But then a different memory, of him and Bolin shuddering under a bus stop shelter. The emotions vividly expressed themselves. Alone. Confused. No-one to help them. And in that moment, all of Mako’s grief, self-pity, and anger vanished in an instant, replaced by pure determination.

“My daughter will not be raised without a father figure in her life!” he declared out loud. He jumped out of the tree and began walking back to the portal. He was going to make sure that Kalla knew her dad.

But first, he had another issue which he had been avoiding for far too long. He was going to go to Bolin and beg for forgiveness.


	28. New Meaning

**Just wanted to say thank you to Rjj for the comments! Really meant a lot. Also, thank you all so much for 400 hits! I am buzzing. Enjoy!**

Mako walked out of the spirit portal, back into the physical world. He kept on walking until he wasn’t standing on the spirit vines anymore and came up to a drain. He took out his beer and turned it upside down, emptying the remainder of it. He waited until every last drop had been poured out, dropped the can and then proceeded to stomp on it.

Mako was crawling out of the trap now. He been stuck in a pit of loneliness and self-isolation for the past eight months. He’d done away with all of his friends, and now his job too. When Hazukk had told him that it was all his fault, Mako had come up with every solution possible to counter that, and that Hazukk had just been playing with him. 

But now Mako accepted that he had to take part of the blame for what had happened, and that most of his problems were solvable. He’d always thought of himself as the type of person to keep it real, but he’d done the exact opposite over the last while. Well, he was now going to work as hard as physically possible to make up for his mistakes.

The former commander looked around for the old homeless man, and saw him still sitting on the bench. He walked over to the man, and tapped on his shoulder. The guy turned around with a raised eyebrow.

“Who-“ he started, and then recognised Mako. “You again! Wanna talk some more?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t stay any longer, I’ve got to do something I should’ve taken care of a long time ago,” Mako apologised. “But I’m hoping that this will help you somehow.” He took out half the yuans he had picked up back at the station, and held them in front of the man. The man’s eyes widened.

“There’s gotta be nearly fifty yuans in that!” he exclaimed, then looked at Mako pretentiously, as if it was too good to be true. “You’re just giving that all to me? I don’t mean to insult ya, pal, but don’t you think you could use some of that money too?”

“I’ve got plenty of money,” Mako reassured him, and put it on the man’s lap. He waited another few seconds, then decided that there was no harm in taking it, and shrugged his shoulders gleefully.

“Thanks, stranger!” he said. “What’s your name, if you don’t mind? I’m Tu.”

“Mako,” Mako replied, and held out his hand. Tu joyfully clasped it and they shook for a minute, before Mako broke it. “Thanks, Tu. I know what I need to do now, because of your story. I owe you one.”

“No bother!” Tu replied, unsure of what he had done, but happy with the sudden gift. He started to flick through the money, counting every last note, as Mako began walking back home. He didn’t look back once, and he made the trip in forty-five minutes. When he arrived back in front of the entrance doors, Mako stopped for a few seconds, his legs aching a bit, then he jogged upstairs. He walked up to his apartment door, and twisted the knob. The door pushed open easily, and no-one had been in there in the few hours Mako had left it unlocked. However, when he walked inside, he was disgusted.

It was no different from the last few months, but with his newfound motivation, Mako couldn’t believe that he’d lowered himself to such a pigsty. The kitchen sink was full to the brim with dirty dishes, and empty takeaway bags littered the floor. His furniture was all stained from alcohol, and of course, the table was in bits. The window could use a cleaning too, now that he thought of it. The shards of a whiskey bottle were also in one corner, and there was a horrible smell of vomit coming from the bathroom.

“Gotta clean this hellhole up first,” Mako muttered, and shut the door behind him. 

First, he opened the window as far as it would go, then got a trash bag. Mako carefully picked up all the shards of glass, then all the small loose pieces of wood from the table. He put the bag in the corner, and went over to his dishes. He filled up a basin with water, heated it using firebending, and cleaned them all over half an hour.

Then, the father of one got a second trash bag, put all the takeaway bags in that, then put the four separate table legs in on top of them. He went downstairs, out the back, and threw the bags in the bins. When he got back in, he noticed that the smell of vomit was mostly gone. He proceeded to scrub the window spotless until he couldn’t see any more spots or dust, then went into his room.

Mako got a suitcase and put most of his casual clothes into it, which weren’t many. He took out all the money that was hidden under the creaky floorboard, over two thousand yuans, and put it in. He got his cleanest towel, and took a shower. Mako used up as much of the soap bar as he felt like, not intent on coming back for a while. When he got out, the firebender folded the clothes he’d worn that morning neatly in a pile, and put on fresh, clean clothes that he hadn’t worn for a while. He got his new electric razor, and shaved his beard off. He looked at his overgrown hair, and frowned, wondering how he was going to go about this.

“Fuck it, I’ve got more pressing problems than my fashion right now!” he decided, and put the blade on 1. He bent over the toilet and ran it all over his head, waves of hair falling in. 

After ten minutes of blindly running it all over his head, Mako looked in the mirror. It was still a little patchy in some parts, but overall, it was a good job. He felt around the back, and there didn’t seem to be any clumps of hair there, so he flushed the toilet, satisfied. He blew the hairs out of his razor and neatly put it back in his suitcase. As he began to walk out, Mako took one last look at his apartment.

It was bare, and the furniture still didn’t look great, but it was so much better than an hour ago. He allowed himself a smile of appreciation, and then walked out the door. He made sure to bring his keys and lock it this time, and as it rattled shut, he made a vow;

“I can’t come back to the comfort of my own home until I’ve made up with Bolin and secured a future with my daughter!”

With that, Mako turned his back and slowly headed down the stairs. When he got outside, he started to think about what he needed to do. First of all, where was Bolin?

 _Easy enough,_ he thought _. He’s in Zaofu with Opal, probably, and if not, Opal’s family will know where they are_.

How do you get there? And how to make it up to Bolin?

 _I’ll get on the next train to Zaofu when I get to the station,_ Mako decided in his head _. And it’ll take about a day and a half to get down to Zaofu, even with the new high-speed rail, with all the different stops. I’ll have more than enough time to think it through there._

Mako waited on the pavement for another four minutes, before a taxi drove by. He held his thumb out and it stopped for him.

“Where to?” the taxi driver asked.

“The train station,” Mako replied, and hauled his bag in with him. The conversation on the way over was bleak, but Mako didn’t care. He was just already trying to think of ways to talk to Bolin. When they got out, Mako tipped a little extra, and strode into the platforms. He looked at the timetable and saw that there were no immediate trains to Zaofu. He looked at the map of the Earth Kingdom States, and then back at the timetable, and saw that there was a train to Omashu in an hour.

“That’ll do,” Mako decided. “I can get another train there.”

Mako went over to the ticket booth, and bought himself a middle-class ticket to Omashu. It was pricey, but it was common knowledge that the lower-class carriages were always packed. He also had a special passport from escorting Wu, that gave him small discounts when traveling, and could easily get him into places such as the Upper Ring in Ba Sing Sae. He got a strange look from the lady stamping verification on his ticket. He thought it was because he wasn’t dressed as fancy as folk who normally had it, but he was wrong.

“Keep that hidden when you get to Omashu,” she advised him in a whisper.

“Hidden?” Mako asked. “Why? I’m used to pickpockets, if that’s what you’re wondering, I’ll be fine. Thanks, though.”

“Maybe in other states,” the lady said, “but I’ve heard whispers about problems between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae, about a number of things. Keep a document like that hidden at the bottom of your bag, or else you could get yourself into trouble.”

“I'll keep that in mind,” Mako said, confused. He’d heard snippets about tensions between the new states, but he thought that was old news. He decided to keep the lady’s advice in mind anyway, and walked to the platform. He stood there nervously, the anticipation of his encounter with Bolin already starting to hype him up. 

_I hope it’s not like this for the entire ride over_ , Mako thought.

His train arrived two minutes earlier, and he got on as quickly as he could. He got himself a comfy seat with lots of room, and rapped on the table.

“I shouldn’t be dreading it,” Mako said aloud to his reflection in the window. He’d already put his suitcase up into one of the containers. “I’m going to be seeing Bolin for the first time in over a year, I should be excited! I’m going to make things up with him!”

“Is something wrong, sir?” a waiter passing by with a trolley asked. “Do you need any refreshments?”

Mako’s stomach rumbled, and he realised he hadn’t had breakfast yet. “Yes please, if you have any meals, I’d like to see your menu. Also, a couple of sheets of paper and a pen, if that’s okay.”

“Here’s the menu,” the waiter said, handing him over a laminated piece of cardboard. “And I’ll get you the other things in just a moment.”

“That’s a big help,” Mako thanked, and stared pensively out the window, wondering how to even begin preparing his apology.

_5:30pm, The next day_

Mako stretched his arms above his head as the train rolled into Zaofu. All of the energy that he’d been hoarding had slowly released itself, and now, he felt like weights had been attached to his shins. He didn’t feel like getting up, but forced himself to, and was one of the last people to step off of the train. Mako rolled his shoulders back, and started to walk up to the highest part of Zaofu, where Opal had lived, before she left to be an Air Nomad. 

He trudged slowly through the streets, his suitcase rattling loudly on the paved roads, and made his way in between the different districts with ease. He caught a tram from the second highest area, as he only remembered then how steep it was.

When Mako showed up to the final stop, the district where Su Beifong and her family lived, he was stopped and his suitcase thoroughly searched. When they were happy that he didn’t have any weapons on him, they still didn’t let him past, though.

“What’s the matter?” Mako asked, irritated. “You’re not searching anyone else leaving, why’re you picking on me?”

“You don’t have the official pass to enter,” the guard told him sternly. “Everyone else has shown theirs. Unless you have an incredibly short memory and still have it hidden somewhere, you’ll be heading right back on that tram.”

“What, no!” Mako protested. “I didn’t come all this way just to be told that I can’t come in! You guys saw my passport earlier, didn’t you? Isn’t that official enough to get me by?”

“No.”

“Come on,” Mako tried. He nearly added 'don't be so stiff,' but caught himself. “I know the Beifong family, my brother dates Opal Beifong.”

“Of course he does. Men, take him back,” the guard ordered dismissively, and looked back at Mako. “If we catch you sneaking around here again, we’ll assume that it’s for the wrong reasons. Understood, pal?”

“You can come with me until I find him!” Mako pleaded as he was dragged back on the tram, but his complaints fell on deaf ears. He was shoved onto a seat, and both of the guards stood in front of him. Mako reluctantly watched the doors close as he ran out of reasons, and the tram started to speed away. He gave in, and waited silently as they travelled back down to the second highest district of Zaofu. He didn’t need any instructions when the doors slid open, and he moped out with his suitcase.

Mako sat glumly on the bench as the tram sped away. He put his head in his hands as he contemplated what to do next. He groaned out loud, and heard footsteps as a small group of people sprinted towards the tram. He heard them stop just a few metres away, panting hard.

“I told you we shouldn’t have waited! This is exactly why we don’t let you make plans, Ling!” one said.

“At least I didn’t waste any time with you when we were playing pool, Nel,” Ling replied with a laugh, then gave out a little yelp as the other person, Nel, presumably gave Ling a dig.

“Wanna do some bending practice? We haven’t done any in a few days,” a third voice suggested. “We should probably start saving money around about now too, if we’re serious on the idea.”

“It’s getting a bit dark now, we could get locked out like last time,” a fourth voice interjected, and Mako’s head shot up. He looked over to the four people standing just beside him. The fourth guy continued; “Besides, if we’re going ahead with that, we’ll probably have no free time when we get to…” he trailed off as he saw at Mako’s face.

“What’s the matter?” the guy called Ling asked, then he looked at Mako. “What’s wrong? Do you know this guy?”

“Yeah, yeah,” the fourth man replied, and then looked at his three friends. “Can you guys go on a walk? Like, a _long_ one. I’ll catch up with guys later.”

“What do you mean?” the guy called Nel asked, then got a cold look from the fourth guy. He closed his mouth, and gestured to Ling and the third person. They got the message, and started walking back the direction they came. They all looked back curiously, but respected their friend's wish. The fourth guy turned and faced Mako.

“Mako. Why are you here?” he asked coldly.

“I want to make things up with you, Bolin,” Mako said, but Bolin just crossed his arms. He had a simple dark green t-shirt and comfy grey trousers on.

“Why? Why now?” Bolin demanded, inhaling and exhaling heavily through his nose. “I know that what I said back then was horribly wrong, and I deserved that punch! But I sent you letter after letter for three months, begging to talk it over, but you never replied to one, so I gave up! Why has it taken you nearly a year to come back to me?”

Mako gulped, and his mind went blank. He tried to think of the first word of the apology he had written out, but it wouldn’t come. So he just decided to wing it.

“Can we go somewhere more private?” he asked. “Or even just less out of the way? This is a little too public.”

“So what? You can knock me on the floor again?” Bolin jibed. He was a lot different from the Bolin that he had punched, Mako noticed. He was a little bit sterner, or maybe he’d just matured. Either way, he wasn’t going to give Mako a easy ride on this one, as Mako had expected.

“Look,” Mako said, “it’s just better that we don’t have everyone passing by listening in on us. Do you know anywhere we can go? Please.”

“We can go up on the hills which lead up to the Beifong Estate,” Bolin said. “No-one wanders around there, unless they want to be alone.”

“Ok, let’s go there then,” Mako said, and stood up. He started to wheel his suitcase behind him, and Bolin looked at it oddly.

“What’s that for?” he asked.

“I’ll explain everything when we get there,” Mako promised, and Bolin begrudgingly accepted it. They started to walk to the hills in a painfully tense silence.

“So, why didn’t you answer any of my letters?” Bolin demanded. They’d walked for about twenty minutes, in silence, and were on a small hill looking out over most of Zaofu. “Don’t give me some half-assed excuse, Mako, I want the truth!”

“The letters. I didn’t know about them, but that’s not the full truth,” Mako admitted, sitting down opposite Bolin. “I was angry at you because of the fight we had, and I didn’t want to contact you first because I thought you were in the wrong. I never bothered to check my pigeon-hole before, as all my work letters were at my desk in the station. I know it sounds far-fetched, but I haven’t gone down into the basement for a letter for about four years.” He looked at Bolin dead in the eye, meaning what he said.

“Who doesn’t check for any letters for four years?” Bolin asked exasperatedly, throwing his hands up in the air. “That is a fat lie, admit it!”

“Three or four months after you left, it did come to mind,” Mako revealed. “But by then, I had other problems as well. Hazukk turned out to be working with the Triple Threats, not a journalist, and he’d duped me the entire time. He made off with all the money in the world from robberies, and I didn’t have a shred of evidence to prove that he was guilty.”

“Hazukk?” Bolin repeated, a scowl still on his face. “Who’s that? Are you going to blame it on a new, convenient friend, that I've never heard of?”

“Hazukk,” Mako said. “Remember, the journalist who used to play with us on the Fire Ferrets back when he was really moody?”

“No,” Bolin answered bluntly.

“Right before Korra joined,” Mako reminded Bolin. “Her very first match was when we were forced to sub her in, when Hazukk didn’t show up.”

“Korra’s first probending match…” Bolin mused, thinking hard. “Oh yeah, the guy who you always used to bicker with? I remember him now. But he wasn’t a journalist back then, was he?”

“No,” Mako answered. “But long story short, he pretended to be my friend and then he stabbed me in the back. He released a story on Korra bloodbending. Remember that?”

“Do I remember?” Bolin repeated. “The entire city was going crazy about that story, and probably the rest of the world as well, how could I not? I didn’t know who wrote it, though.”

“After he got his big payday, he didn’t need me, but I forced him to leave Republic City after I stumbled on him and a few Triple Threats,” Mako explained. “He cut off any ties of friendship we had, and managed to get it into my head that everything that had gone wrong up until that point was my fault. I became a right dickhead, and I pushed all my friends away.”

“What about the letters?” Bolin reiterated. “You still haven’t still haven’t answered that question fully yet.”

“I’m getting to that,” Mako said. “Anyway, after that, I started drinking heavily, and about month into drinking four times a week on my own, I thought to check the pigeon-hole to see if you had sent anything. Now this next part is going to seem very illogical, but it’s honestly what happened.” He looked at Bolin softly, begging for him to keep an open mind.

“Go on,” Bolin allowed, his arms crossed.

“I was feeling like shit, and I was all the time feeling sorry for myself,” Mako started opening up, more than he ever had in the last year. Then he finally said it out loud. “I was depressed, but I didn’t say anything! I thought that I could bury it with drinking, and that my rep as a no-nonsense commander would be tarnished if I admitted it, and by that point, all I had left was my job and my reputation. So I kept my mouth shut.

“But part of me - my pride - revelled in the loneliness while I would be huddled up in a corner,” Mako went on, “barely able to move while retching horribly. Yes, I had nothing going for me socially, but I was tough, and I could handle it all on my own, so I thought. So when the idea to check for letters came into my head, I denied it, telling myself you would’ve called. It was idiotic, but at that point all I was trying to do was numb the pain as much as possible, and it helped me feel a little dignity.”

“Well…” Bolin said, softening up a tiny bit but then hardening himself again immediately. “No, I don’t believe that! You were always ruthless and kept it real when we were younger, no matter how embarrassing or shit it got! You never made decisions based on pride back then, so why would you now, when you’re a fully grown adult?”

“I don’t know,” Mako confessed, hunkered down while Bolin stood up and glared over him. “Maybe because I always had to think about you back then, and I never had the luxury of sitting back. Listen, I am so, so sorry for how much of a prick I’ve been. Only when I challenged Chief Beifong when she demoted me for slacking so much, did I really step over the line against someone I couldn’t ignore it against.”

“You disobeyed Beifong? As in Lin Beifong?” Bolin asked in disbelief, his expression changing for a moment.

“Not only that, I put my finger in her face, as if she’d reverse her decision,” Mako revealed, and Bolin took a step back, as if Mako would lash out at any moment.

“That’s got to be up there with the stupidest things I’ve ever heard of,” Bolin told him. “You really mustn’t have thought that one through.”

“Not at all,” Mako agreed, and began to breath heavily, trying not to let his voice crack. “She slapped and fired me, as you’d expect. After that, only then did it hit me how stupid I’d been in general. But instead of going and trying to fix my mistakes, I just became even more miserable. I hadn’t ever seriously considered it before then, but in the hour after that, I was… I was so close to just ending it all and killing myself!”

“That… Spirits,” Bolin said quietly, his eyes widening. “I thought that I was down after the fight but… I never could’ve imagined what you were going through.” He sat back down, his anger evaporating slightly.

“I should’ve said something, anything!” Mako continued, his eyes tearing up, but he forced them back down, not realising he was contradicting what he’d just said by keeping his tears in.

“What about Asami?” Bolin asked. “She’s been through a lot, I’m sure she would’ve been nice. Did you even consider going to her?”

“Ever since her and Korra broke up, she’s been shutting herself away,” Mako answered. “She didn’t answer the vast majority of my calls, and whenever I did speak to her, she was inconsolable.”

“Asami and Korra broke up?!” Bolin repeated, taken aback even more. “When? Why?”

“You… of course, you don’t know, the men only told Beifong, and she only told me,” Mako realised, rubbing the back of his head. “They didn’t come with us to the South Pole either, so there’s a large chance that they haven’t figured it out. No-one mentioned the baby she was holding in any reports, so no-one really had any suspicions about it. It’s only me, Korra and her parents, Asami and Beifong that know otherwise. She just said that Kalla was her sister, and everyone was too busy picking themselves up to give it a second thought about the baby.”

“The BABY?” Bolin shouted, flabbergasted, figuring it out. “Kuh… kuh… Korra had a baby? A child? That’s why her and Asami broke up? Why wasn’t I told?”

“It never came to mind,” Mako answered, readying himself for the inevitable question. It came a few seconds later.

“Well then, who’s the father?!” Bolin asked, leaning closer, forgetting about their differences and Mako’s hardships for a minute.

“I spent a long time wondering about that myself,” Mako said. “Then she told me right after she swatted away the United Forces. I didn’t believe it at first.”

“So who was it?” Bolin urged, dying to know the answer.

“I am.” Mako confessed, without hesitation, and even he found it a bit weird to hear it, as he had barely said it out loud so far. “Korra and I are Kalla’s parents.”

“Yuh-yuh-yuh-you?” Bolin asked, his mouth falling open. “You’re… a dad?”

“Yep,” Mako confirmed, looking Bolin dead in the eye.

“So you... got with Korra while she was with Asami?” Bolin asked, extremely confused. “Just like when Korra got with you while you were dating Asami?”

“We were both drunk,” Mako admitted, his guilt catching up with him. “It was completely unintentional, and after it, Korra was so guilt ridden that she didn’t tell me before she fled Republic City. Even I didn’t believe her at first when she told me, and because of that, we had a fight. She told me not to go near her daughter ever again, or that she’d break ever last bone in my body.”

“You didn’t accept her?” Bolin asked, mortified, and a look of disgust appeared on his face. “You didn’t accept your OWN DAUGHTER!? How could you, after everything we went through as kids?!”

“I genuinely didn’t remember!” Mako protested, tears starting to slither down his face. His emotional wall was crumpling down now. “Just let me finish, please, before you judge me!” Bolin was about to say something, then held it back. He nodded stiffly, eyeing Mako down with murderous intent. Mako didn’t blame him. He continued:

“I couldn’t get what she had said out of my head though, no matter how hard I drank, it always came back. Then, when I was fired yesterday, I was walking around like the miserable sack of shit I was, and I sat down on a bench in front of the spirit portal.”

“You only got fired yesterday?” Bolin asked. “Did you really come running here as soon as you got let off. Is that why you’re here? To get a job in Zaofu? If so, get the fuck out of my sight right now!” He pointed towards the train track that led into Zaofu from the main railway web.

“It’s not!” Mako insisted, more and more tears streaming down his face now. His voice was an octave higher than before. “I need to get to the end of the story! This homeless guy came up and sat on the bench right beside me. He told me how he had gone inside the Tree of Time in the spirit world, and how all his memories came back.”

“Ok,” Bolin said, ready to give out.

“And I realised that if Kalla really was my daughter, then I would remember getting with Korra,” Mako continued. He stopped for a few seconds to catch his breath, then kept going:

“So I mediated in the Tree of Time, and I remembered! I remembered the full night! Then I also got a flashback of us as kids on the streets, shivering and lonely. I stepped out of that tree, and I knew that I had to own up and support my daughter as best as I possibly can, so that she has a much better upbringing than her dad.”

“Then why did you come to me?” Bolin posed the question. “I didn’t even know about your daughter a minute ago!”

“If I can’t even make it up with my lifelong best friend and brother, then how can I ever hope to make amends with the mother of my daughter?” Mako replied. “Please, Bolin, I know I haven’t done anything to deserve forgiveness in the past while, but just this one time, please let me off. I’m begging you. I am so, so, so, sorry for what happened between us, and I promise to never let anything like that ever happen again.” Mako practically fell down to Bolin's feet and started bawling his eyes out, sobbing.

Bolin looked down at the figure he’d looked up to for all his childhood and teenage years, breaking down at his feet. They’d been through thick and thin with each other. Now that very same person was begging for forgiveness at his feet, the same person who’d always looked out for him after their parents had died. 

Against all of that, what was one fight compared to all of the good things Mako had done for him in his life?

“It’s okay,” Bolin relented, letting all of his anger at Mako flow away. “Get up. I forgive you.” Mako looked up at his younger brother, and slowly got to his feet, still sniffling. “But there are-“

Bolin wheezed as Mako squeezed him in a bear hug. The firebender cried uncontrollably into Bolin’s shoulder, unable to express in words how grateful he was.

“Just let it all out,” Bolin said softly, patting Mako on the back. Other minor issues like what Mako was going to do after tonight popped up in his head, but Bolin just put them in the back of his mind. He kept on reassuring Mako that everything would be ok as the cumulative stress of the last eight months poured out for another few minutes.

“I just realised something,” Mako mentioned, looking up, his eyes red. “You’re an uncle, Bolin. Congrats.” He tried to smile, but more tears just came out.

“I’m… an uncle,” Bolin said, and the meaning of it hit him suddenly. “I’m an uncle!” He was about to say more, but then thought against cheering at that very moment and time, as Mako was still crying. Inside though, his heart fluttered.


	29. Bolin's Ambition

Mako opened his eyes, and let out a content sigh. He laid in bed for another couple of minutes, then sat up and stretched. Mako looked around at the room he was staying in, nearly an exact replica of the one he’d been in when he had visited Zaofu in the search for new airbenders. His suitcase was at the far end of the room, still unpacked, as he had been so tired, physically and emotionally, last night that he slept like a log. He got up and went to the bathroom en-suite. The former commander ran the cold tap, and after a few seconds of letting it run over his hands, he splashed it on his face. Mako shuddered as the water woke him up fully.

He and Bolin had made up last night, and Mako felt happier than he had in a long, long time. It was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and now he was walking so much more freely. The issue of Kalla was still needing to be addressed, of course, but that would come with time. He needed to think over what he was going to do next, because other than that he hoped to stay with Bolin for a bit, he had no immediate plans.

After letting everything out last night, Bolin and Mako had walked down to a motel. Mako had paid for the room, despite Bolin’s protests, but Bolin had promised to let Mako move in to his place in Zaofu, which he’d bought fully a couple of months ago.

“Bolin and Opal are living together!” Mako exclaimed out loud. It was a welcome surprise on the way back home yesterday evening, and Mako couldn’t be happier for his little brother. Although he wasn’t little anymore. 

Bolin was nearly 22, and although he was still light-hearted, he’d definitely matured considerably since their fight. He was doing well for himself too, but he wanted what his main job was to stay secret until Mako came around to a rendezvous later. Him and Opal were living in the Fhouz district, which was the third highest district altogether. It was a massive housing estate more than anything, and it was where the bulk of Zaofu’s population lived.

Mako walked out of the bathroom and went over to his suitcase. He put a white vest and a brown t-shirt with long sleeves which had a small deer logo stitched in on the crest. It was his favourite top, and one he’d never worn while drinking, to keep it clean. He pulled on some black trousers, and walked out the door. He could come back for his stuff later, as he still had it booked the room until the end of the day. Mako went downstairs, got some breakfast and walked outside.

Mako strolled confidently to the tram. He walked with a swagger that he didn’t realise he’d lost of the course of the last eight months. When the firebender got on and sat down in his seat, he noticed a little baby staring at him. He returned the smile as wide as he could, and saw the baby giggle. He sat back happily, watching the buildings blur past as he travelled to the Fhouz district. When he arrived, he got off and looked around, trying to remember what Bolin had said to him.

 _As soon as you get off at the first stop_ , Bolin’s voice relayed in his mind, _look around. You should spot a blue spire poking out from behind a billboard. It’ll take a little while to walk to it, but that’s the place. I’ve got something really exciting to show you! Be there by 10am._

Mako looked around, and sure enough, he did spot a spire poking out from behind a billboard. It had only just passed 8:30am, but Mako was completely alert because Zaofu was a couple of hours behind Republic City, in terms of time zones. He started to make his way through the streets, always keeping the blue spike in sight. After twenty-five minutes of dead ends and turning back, Mako arrived at the base of the spire.

It went six hundred metres into the air, and was made of metal, as all sculptures in the city were. He sat down by a bench in front of it and crossed his arms and legs. It was a bit chilly this early in the morning, as it was October. It didn’t matter to Mako though, as he heated his body using firebending. He waited there patiently, just happy to be on good terms with Bolin again. 

Over the next while, more and more people started to show up around there. Mako didn’t think anything of it until one of the guys he’d seen with Bolin, Ling, also showed up. It spiked Mako’s interest, but he didn’t say anything until Bolin arrived himself.

“Bolin!” Mako exclaimed after nearly an hour of waiting, and rushed off the bench to greet his brother. Bolin, who’d arrived on a bike, came over and gave Mako a hug, patting him on the back.

“Feeling better?” Bolin asked with a wide grin, and Mako nodded. “Great, because this has been gaining momentum for a while. I can’t wait for you to see what we’ve created! Ling, come meet Mako.”

Ling walked over from where he was leaning against the spire, and stopped just in front of Mako. He was inch or two taller than Bolin, albeit a bit skinner, and had bright, short blond hair. He had a dull yellow tank top on and greyish-red trousers. He didn’t mind the cold, seemingly. He had sharp features and piercing hazel eyes, but when he smiled, there was no sense of hostility whatsoever.

“You’re Bolin’s brother, Mako, aren’t you?” he started. “I’m Ling, and we run this entire thing with Mo and Nel. I haven’t really heard much about you from Bolin. Can you lavabend too?”

“Lavabend?” Mako asked, and looked at Bolin curiously. Bolin just looked back awkwardly. “No, I can’t lavabend. I’m a firebender.”

“You’re a firebender?” Ling repeated, surprised, then looked at Bolin. “Wow, Bolin, you didn’t tell me much.”

“We didn’t leave on the best of terms,” Bolin explained, shifting his feet awkwardly. “So I didn’t like to talk about him. No offense, Mako.”

“None taken,” Mako said, then turned his attention back to Ling. “What do you mean by 'we'? Do you know all the other people here?” He gestured to the other twenty people around, their ages ranging from eighteen to forty.

“We run lavabending courses,” Ling told Mako, as if it painstakingly obvious. “You two _really_ didn’t talk at all, did you? Bolin started running them about ten months ago, with only me, Nel and Mo going. We grew really tight together, and the class started to grow really quickly up until a few months ago. By that point, we were all good enough to help him teach. Then the law started to make us do background checks on everyone, and we lost a substantial number of our students, because they wouldn’t let anyone with any type of criminal conviction learn, no matter how small. Mo and Nel are setting up the grids right now. You’re coming, surely, even if you can’t lavabend?”

“Is that why you wanted me to come here?” Mako asked Bolin, unable to think of any other reason.

“Yep!” Bolin said enthusiastically. “Just wait until you see how good we’ve gotten at teaching it. You have to come and watch, Mako!”

“I don’t see why not,” Mako agreed. “I came here to see whatever you wanted to show me, and this is it.”

“Alright!” Bolin said happily, and high-fived Ling. He grinned, and then cupped his hands around his mouth. “Everyone, time to go. We all know the drill, show your license to the police without creating a fuss and we should get there by half ten. We don’t have many lessons left together, so let’s really put in a special effort.”

Bolin walked up to a police officer, and produced a plastic card out of his pocket. The guard glanced at it, this clearly being a regular occurrence, then gave him a short nod. Bolin said something and gestured to Mako. The officer listened, then walked up to Mako.

“Any problems, sir?” Mako asked. He knew exactly what to say, and what not to say from his experience back in Republic City to get on well with a cop.

“Bolin there says that you’re a firebender. Restrictions around lavabenders are very tight here, as you’d expect, so just show me you can firebend and you’ll be on your way.”

“Sure,” Mako said, and lit a fire in the palm of his hand. The officer gave Mako a brief nod, then turned to Ling. Ling did the same as Bolin, and the officer repeated the process with all the others. There were no problems apart from one 19-year-old, who seemed to have forgotten his license. He cursed, and after a few minutes of looking, he started to walk home sullenly.

“Can’t we wait for him?” Mako asked, but Bolin shook his head defiantly.

“Lavabending isn’t something to play around with,” Bolin stated. “I know it seems harsh, but if they don’t even remember to bring their license when it’s such a big deal, we can’t have them playing around with lava. Even with the license, we still have to have an official from the law watching over us. I had to get Su Beifong to personally give me permission to even start teaching classes. We have to take a hard line, or else things could get ugly in the future.”

“That’s… very mature of you,” Mako acknowledged, putting a hand on Bolin’s shoulder as they kept on walking. “I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I never thought you’d be the type to step up and lead with a hard approach. I’m really impressed.”

“He was happy to let me do most of the talking until he nearly burnt my hand off,” Ling said slyly, and gave Bolin a soft dig on the shoulder. Bolin chuckled awkwardly, and Ling started to tell Mako a bunch of funny stories from the past about Bolin while he’d been in Zaofu, while Bolin joked along with him.

“You two are friends then?” Mako assumed.

“Yeah,” Ling answered immediately. He was very social. “Me and Bolin have been stuck together a fair bit, whether it be with lavabending or just going out. I was the first guy to really take his classes seriously, a little before Nel and Mo joined. Whenever he’s not head-over-heels for Opal, that is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen either of them not holding each other when they’re in a room! Oh, there’s so much to tell you about those two lovebirds, I don’t know where to start!”

“Not around Mako!” Bolin whispered loudly, but Ling kept going. A smirk appeared on Mako’s face, and he leaned closer to Ling, who had a fat smile on his face.

“There was this one time,” Ling continued playfully, “when he was… when Bolin…“ he was cut off over his own laughter, doubling over. Mako’s interest was definitely spiked now, but when Ling tried to tell the rest of the story, Bolin put his hand over Ling's mouth.

Bolin managed to keep Ling from telling any embarrassing stories about himself and Opal for the rest of the walk, which was about half an hour. They came up to a plain open field, well away from the city, and four grids of regular earth had been set up carefully by the other two lavabenders. They were all twenty metres apart from each other, so any lava from another grid would purposely had to have been lobbed to reach another.

“What did you mean by that you don’t have many lessons together left?” Mako asked them both. He didn’t have to ask more specifically to know that they were best friends. He could tell through their banter that they were very close. They were both friendly and vibrant, much as Mako had remembered Bolin, and their personalities bounced off of each other. Ling slagged Bolin a little bit more, but it was all in good humour.

“Oh yeah, I completely forgot to tell you!” Bolin exclaimed. “We’re thinking of moving to Ba Sing Sae to start up a lavabending school there! I know there’s bound to be tons of lavabenders there, and to be quite honest…” he leaned in closer to Mako’s ear “…there hasn’t really been a huge uptake here. Apart from Ling, Nel and Mo, nobody has really shown a rock-hard interest in lavabending, unfortunately.”

“Really?” Mako said, raising an eyebrow. “But there are thousands upon thousands of people in Zaofu, from all over the world. Surely there’s more than just three of you.”

“There were a couple more,” Bolin continued. “But they all had dodgy backgrounds, and it was clear with a couple of them that they were only interested in using it for the wrong reasons. We’ve got a place on hold in the Lower Ring which we can rent for the first while, and travelling there is no problem. There are just one or two big issues.”

“I’ll say,” Ling added. “Opal isn’t happy with it in the slightest. I thought it was impossible for them to fight over something, but boy, was I wrong.”

“Does Opal not like lavabending?” Mako asked. He racked his memory for anytime she had said so, but he couldn’t off of the top of his head. “Then how are you two staying together, if that’s the case?”

“It’s not lavabending,” Bolin said sadly, “she just doesn’t like Ba Sing Sae one bit after what happened to the airbenders there. I told her that the Earth Queen is long gone, but she won’t budge.”

“She must feel pretty strongly about it if she raised her voice about it,” Mako said. “She was really shy the last time I met her. So she won’t move with you to Ba Sing Sae, but you two are living together at the moment?”

“That’s about it,” Bolin said. “The other problem is that it’s technically still illegal there, and punishable by death because of some ancient law. We did a lot of research, sending letters and looking at records of crimes, but couldn’t find anyone that had been executed or even jailed for lavabending itself. Wu still has some power, I’m sure that we can convince him to get it overturned.”

“That’s a pretty strong 'if',” Mako mentioned. “I know that you and Wu know each other well enough, but he can’t just go changing laws on a whim because a friend asked him to.”

“Well, if it doesn’t work out, then that’s a pity,” Bolin said. “But we’ve got a couple of other cities planned out as back up, and we won’t run out of money for a while. Trust me, we’ve been planning it for ages.”

“If anything goes slightly wrong, it’ll be on your shoulders,” Mako warned, still sceptical, as Mo and Nel walked over. “We both know that I can’t control you, nor do I want you, but my honest impression is just that it seems like a high risk for a low-enough reward. You’ve gotten ahead of yourself in the past, Bo.”

“It’s my calling,” Bolin replied, not backing down. “You’ve always been the stern cop, that rules with an iron fist, or like Asami was always going to be a businesswoman. I’m going to be a lavabending instructor, I know it!”

“An iron fist…?” Mako muttered quietly, not sure how to take that, while Bolin greeted the other two.

“This is my brother Mako,” Bolin introduced. “He’s a firebender, and he was the guy we ran into at the stop last night. He can be a bit broody sometimes, but he means well. You should get to know each other.”

 _Not gonna convince anyone with your silver tongue, anyway,_ Mako thought _. Still got a bit of a habit of saying whatever comes to your mind first_.

“I’m Mohamed, but everyone calls me Mo,” one of them greeted, and waved at Mako. Mako waved back. Mohamed was just under six-foot-tall, and wore a t-shirt and shorts, despite the cold weather. He had light-brown skin and a very well-kept long, curly beard. His black hair was parted and gelled at the hairline. Unlike most earthbenders, he was slim enough. He was still built, but ironically looked skinny compared to his friends. “I teach the beginners here basic forms using sandbending.”

“Sandbending?” Mako repeated. “What does sand have to do with lava?”

“Sand is much more timid and calmer than lava to control,” Mo started to explain. Mako got the sense that he’d been asked that exact question a lot, but he didn’t seem annoyed, thankfully. “Lava is just as heavy as normal rocks, but when you’re just bending regular earth, you don’t need to try to keep it compact. But with lava, it slips out of out your grasp, like sand. I’d happily give you the full rundown if you came over while I teach my students.”

“No harm in it, I guess,” Mako agreed, getting a nod from Bolin.

“I’m Nel,” the last guy said. He was a physically huge man, over 6’5, his arms bulging with the size of his muscles. He had a short orange buzz cut, just like Mako’s hair, and his nose was crooked. When he smiled though, it was dazzling. He was wearing a t-shirt and shorts as well. He held out his fist, and Mako fist-bumped it. “Nice to meet you.” He didn’t add anything else.

“Nel's probably the strongest earthbender of us all,” Ling said. “He doesn’t have as much precision as the rest of us, but he could melt a mountain if he wanted to. He’s a good lad, but he just isn’t great at meeting new people.”

“Hi,” Mako said. “Nice to meet you too.” He turned to the four of them. “Which one of you is the best lavabender overall, would you say?”

“That’s a pretty general question,” Ling said. “Like I just said, Nel could make the most lava out of all of us, but he could be better at directing it. Mo has unreal technique from knowing how to sandbend from his old man, but he can’t create that much altogether. Me and Bolin are about the same, but I’m just that tiny bit better.” The last sentence was bait, but Bolin knew it straight away and just rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say,” Bolin replied, but then snuck in an extra few words. “I’d still smash you any day in a fight though.”

“That’s only because I’ve never fought anyone with it,” Ling challenged. “And besides, you travelled with the Avatar, she probably taught you a load of moves.”

“I learnt how to lavabend before she did,” Bolin protested, and raised a challenging eyebrow. Ling returned it fully, but they laughed it off a second later.

 _There seems to be a rivalry there_ , Mako thought. _It looks healthy though_.

His heart tinged with regret with the reference to Korra, but he didn’t really feel too bad. He just didn’t have the motivation to self-pity at that very moment and time, if that made sense. He was in too good a mood for something like the mention of her to spoil it.

“Let’s get started,” Mo decided, and gestured for Mako to join him as he starred walking to the grid at the far end. When they got there, there were seven students were waiting quietly, ready to begin. All the grids were surrounded by stone fences, and hadn’t been altered at all, but while Bolin, Ling and Nel all changed the middle of their grids to a small puddle of lava to begin with, Mo’s was just sand. Everyone had raised themselves a pillar of earth to sit on, and Mo made one for Mako too. He stood, ready to teach.

“Class, we have a guest today, and he’s none other than Bolin’s brother, Mako!” Mo announced. All seven heads shot at Mako, and suddenly, Mako got a sense of respect, even though he had only just arrived. _Bolin must have a big reputation here_ , huh, Mako thought.

“I’m not an earthbender though,” Mako got in quickly, as so not to give them false expectations of what he could do. “I’m a firebender.” He lit a small flame in his hand, and although the awe dropped significantly, they still sat a little bit straighter than before. Their age range was roughly late teens to mid-twenties.

“You’re all nearly ready to get to more advanced lavabending, so tell him a few things about it, to prove to me that you know the basics.” One woman put her hand up, and Mo picked her.

“Only every one in a couple hundred earthbenders can lavabend,” she started, and Mako was taken aback. “But that’s a safe estimate, it’s probably even less. A lot of people never realise they can, too. It’s generally stumbled upon.”

“Very good,” Mo appreciated. “Brian, you’re next. Tell him anything you know.”

“Anything?” the guy called Brian asked. “Well, um, here, every beginner has had to learn how to bend sand to a decent level before they can start lavabending. It’s like learning good form for lifting weights in a gym, and then lavabending is putting heavy weights on. Also, being able to sandbend doesn’t mean you can lavabend. Pretty much every earthbender can learn how to bend sand, as sand is just tiny, miniscule pebbles.”

“Leaving anything out?” Mo suggested, but the man called Brian just looked at him blankly. Mo sighed, then gave him a clue; “What’s the number of metalbenders that can lavabend as well, in the entire world?”

“Oh, nobody has ever claimed to be able to yet,” Brian answered immediately, then he turned to Mako. “Wait, didn’t you grow up with Bolin, and if so, did you travel with the Avatar too?”

“Yeah,” Mako answered quickly. He didn’t mind thinking about Korra, it was just that thinking about her led on to thinking about Kalla, and there was no point in doing that right now.

“She can probably do both, right?” he asked.

“I’d say so,” Mako said, thinking back. “I’ve definitely seen her metalbend at some point, but I’ve never seen her lavabend.” He remembered Hazukk’s interviews, and he had claimed in them that she had lavabent against the Triple Threats. But he didn’t know that for sure, so after another few moments of thinking, he shrugged his shoulders to confirm that he couldn’t think of any time he’d witnessed it.

“Another interesting fact,” Mo interjected, “is that even if two lavabenders have children, it isn’t guaranteed that their child will be able to lavabend, just like some children of benders aren’t able to bend at all. The odds are that for every two children two lavabending parents have together, one won’t be able to bend lava even if they can both earthbend. For an earthbender and a firebender having children, the chances are roughly 1 in 4 that they will have a lavabending child.”

“Sir, I remember something!” another student said, eager to impress. It seemed ironic, given that Bolin’s friends all looked roughly the same age or a year younger than him, that these people were treating them like elders.

“Go ahead,” Mo said.

“A common misconception is that lavabending is just like waterbending, but in fact, there are very few similarities. Waterbending is more like airbending than lavabending.”

“Very good, Terng,” Mo complemented. “I reckon you might be able to move up by next week, to Ling, Nel or Bolin. You’re a good example to the others.” The man called Terng beamed with happiness.

“I never heard that,” Mako commented. “Where’d you learn that from?”

“Bolin was talking to a waterbender a good while ago, before he began teaching, and he found almost no similarities,” Mo told Mako. “It’s near impossible to redirect lava perfectly, while redirecting water is literally all waterbending is about. You could maybe draw a line in between the change from solid to liquid, but not really. We're open to criticism, of course, but no-one’s been able to come forward with an argument that could help us teach better. There are a few waterbending forms an elite level lavabender could copy, but that’s about it.”

“Seems fair enough,” Mako said. “But why did the cop come? You were getting on fine with him earlier when he checked your licenses.”

“It’s just to make sure that we stay outside the city limits,” Mo explained. “It’s not a matter of they don’t trust us, it’s just that they don’t take any risks. It’s fine, he just sits there quietly.” He turned his attention back to the students. “Now, let’s start with the Sand Ball exercise. Get into position.”

A collective moan was heard from the group, even the enthusiastic ones, but they all got their own space around the grid. Without Mo needing to say anything, they all brought up a perfect sphere of sand each, the size of five heads, and held them there perfectly. Not a grain of sand was dropped as they stood there in complete silence, concentrating hard.

“The goal of this is to hone their attention to holding all the sand together,” Mo explained to Mako. “I’m going to try to distract them for the next few minutes, and if anyone drops a grain of sand, they all have to start over.”

“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” Mako suggested, but Mo just laughed as the earth beneath one person’s feet shifted without warning, but it didn’t faze the student.

“We developed this exercise after Ling nearly got his hand burnt off by a splash of lava, by Bolin of all people,” Mo told Mako. “After that, we came up with this. Everyone did it, and we found that it really fine-tunes your ability to mould lava.”

Mo flung his hand back without even looking, and a wave of sand suddenly washed over someone at the far end. They were used to it by this stage though, seemingly, and kept their posture as it tickled them, no actual force in the wave.

After the exercise was done with, Mo started taking people one at a time. He got them to change the sand back into stone, then again into lava. He didn’t do much lavabending himself, but whenever he did a demonstration, it was very elegant. He would raise up a wall of lava, then lower it back down, hammering in the need to be tidy about it without a single drop splashing. 

Mako watched, very impressed, and eventually took off his long-sleeved t-shirt. He could see why everyone barely had any layers on. He was sweating like crazy, and had to walk away from the grid after a while when he was still too hot, even as a firebender. The others were fine though, somehow.

He walked closer to Bolin and silently watched him give instructions. Bolin was showing his four students (Ling and Nel both had three each) more advanced moves. He was even able to hold a stream of lava up in the air, but it was hard even for him to maintain that. None of his students came even close to holding it up for more than a few seconds.

Mako was deep in thought as he watched the class go on for the next hour or so. He mulled over what he was thinking about for a long time, but when Bolin walked over to him after he was done, Mako's mind was made up.

“That was amazing!” Mako greeted as Bolin came up to him. “I wasn’t too sure before, but you’ve really got something going here! You knew exactly what you were doing the entire time. I’m proud of you, little bro.”

“Thanks,” Bolin said, his smile from getting through a good session growing as wide as it could from the complement. “It means a lot. You don’t know how glad I am to see you even happy around me again. I was worried that we might not talk again for ages.”

“I’m sorry,” Mako apologised, clasping Bolin’s hand in a brotherly handshake and pulling him into a hug. “I should’ve made much more of an effort, much sooner.”

“It’s fine, that’s behind us now,” Bolin reassured him, and broke the hug. “Have you had anytime to figure out what you want to do now? At least while we’re both in Zaofu?”

“I think I’ll try get a job as a bouncer or something like that,” Mako said. “I brought a fair bit of money with me here, and I’m sure I can find some low rent apartment.”

“We honestly don’t mind you moving in,” Bolin said immediately. “Opal and I have a lovely apartment; you can sleep on the couch.”

“Apartment?” Mako asked. “Why aren’t you both living with Su Beifong?”

“To be independent, or something,” Bolin answered. “Opal really wanted to, so I couldn’t say no.”

“Always the ladies’ man,” Mako joked, smiling. “But really, it’s not fair for me to come back after eleven months of not talking and just move in with you and your girlfriend. Also, if you two are trying to work out the Ba Sing Sae idea, you might not feel comfortable arguing with me around.” He put a hand on Bolin’s shoulder and looked at him straight in the eyes, meaning every word.

“If you insist,” Bolin said after a moment of hesitation, then his expression lightened up. “Wait, you like the Ba Sing Sae idea?”

“Absolutely,” Mako confirmed definitively. “You guys are well capable of it; I know you are. But I need to make up for how much of dickhead I’ve been to you. That is, if I have your permission.”

“You don’t have to apologise for that,” Bolin reassured him, and then tilted his head. “Permission for what?”

“I want to travel with you guys to Ba Sing Sae,” Mako revealed. “Wu was practically begging me to come back to Ba Sing Sae with him, I got a dozen phone calls for it after that guy from the Earth Empire army Guan was put away. I declined them all, of course, but if I ask him for a special favour, he can definitely get it decriminalised. I don’t know what I’ll do after that, but this is something I want to do for you.”

Bolin’s mouth fell open, then he started punching the air in glee. He cheered and danced around for a minute, getting a few looks from his own students, before turning back to Mako.

“Yes, yes, yes, that’s perfect! If you can do that, you’ll be the best big brother ever! This is so, so, so helpful! Just wait until I tell the others!” He ran over to Ling, told him, and then they high-fived. They repeated this with Nel and Mo, and soon enough all of them were dancing around happily, much to the bemusement of the students, who didn’t know what was going on.

Mako’s heart did a flip as he saw Bolin so happy, specifically because of him. It was nice to be genuinely appreciated again.


	30. Arrival on Crescent Island

“I’ll miss you, Korra,” Soma said as Korra stepped onto the boat. Korra had spent the last three weeks on Kyoshi Island, training in secret with the warriors, as a favour. While she hadn’t been to go and greet the people of Kyoshi Island, all the Kyoshi Warriors had been sparring with her. She had stayed at their request, as they had never had any experience fighting a master airbender before.

Korra had cut her hair, which had reached her waist, back to shoulder-length. She’d only grown it out for Asami, and she found she actually preferred it short, but forgot about it while in the South Pole. It was more practical, and she certainly didn’t care about her appearance anymore.

“I’ll miss you too,” Korra said, pulling Soma into a hug. “You’ve all learnt so quickly. You can take on just about any airbender now, I have no doubt.”

Soma looked down at the wood of the pier they were standing on. “Hey… is it really true? What Avatar Kyoshi said about us?”

Korra smiled. “It is,” she reassured Soma. “Avatar promise.”

“Thank you, Korra,” Soma said. “I know we didn’t get off to a great start, but you’re a great friend, and Avatar too. Whatever happens with the rest of the world, just know that you’ll always be welcome on Kyoshi Island. Sparring with you has been invaluable.”

“I’ll come back sometime in the future,” Korra promised, and hopped on her small boat. It was 3am, so no-one would be up to see her. Ty Lee had swept the mysterious speedboat under the rug very slyly, and nobody on the island had mentioned it again after a few days. Korra regretted not being able to stay longer, but at the same time, she was restless. The Kyoshi Warriors had very kindly leant her a boat, a map and a compass. Korra refused to take too much of their food, as she could fish very easily.

Soma waved sadly as Korra created a current to take her out of the bay. Korra waved back, then focused on getting her directions right. It would take her about a week to get to Crescent Island, seeing as she wasn’t an experienced sailor.

In the meantime, she would probably spend her free time fretting in her mind over how Kalla was doing. It tore away at Korra not to be able to see her baby, but she was a little better at handling it now. A few Kyoshi Warriors, who had been mothers themselves, helped Korra through the times when they weren’t sparring. She had created countless sculptures of what Kalla looked like to pass the heart-breaking hours, but none of them did justice to her beauty.

Korra was not a good sailor. Even though she had been walked through how to use a map thoroughly back on the island, she was still fairly hopeless. She went off course numerous times, and ended up on a couple of different islands over the next ten days. She didn’t actually know what Crescent Island was meant to look like. From what she’d been told by the warriors, there were roughly one hundred and fifty to two hundred elite firebenders living on the island. No contact was allowed from anyone on the island to the outside world, apart from the higher-ups, who ran the drug operation. They imported fresh dirt and grew mainly heroin, but also prepared a ton of meth.

 _If we know this, why hasn’t the Fire Nation gone after it yet?_ Korra had asked as she replayed the conversation in her mind a dozen times.

 _They fight to the last man,_ Soma had answere _d. And dealing with one combustion bender is hard enough, so you’ve told me, so sixty is probably impossible to invade. Zuko and his daughter Izumi have tried countless times, but by this stage they’ve just given up. They don’t go invading the Fire Nation, so everyone's just too tired to keep trying. Also, there are rumours from deserters that their leader has a heart of steel._

 _What’s their leader’s name_? Korra asked.

 _Only combustion benders have ever claimed to know that_ , Soma answered, _but none of them have ever broke. The fear of their leader finding out is too much of a risk, apparently._

 _Do you think they’ll let me in, seeing as I’m not Fire Nation_? Korra posed the question. _P'li told me to go there, but she never actually learnt there. She was only taught by a guy who’d been sent over._

 _I don’t know,_ Soma had said truthfully _. You’ll just have to hope that they’ll teach the Avatar. My advice though, is that if they start being hostile, get out of there as fast as possible. You’ll need to think of a very good reason for them to teach you though. I can’t help with that._

Korra spent her days thinking of different ways that would hopefully give them a good enough reason to take her in, but she couldn’t think of any that didn’t break the law, unfortunately. She was adamant now that her using bloodbending wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t going to use it if possible. She groaned, as she knew that going on that island probably warranted a sentence, to add to the numerous she already had by now.

Ten days after setting out from Kyoshi Island, Korra spotted Crescent Island. She knew that it had been very sentimental to Avatar Roku, and she certainly got a spiritual vibe from it. Raava's energy surged within her as they got closer, trying to clamp down on Vaatu, who was about equal with Raava in terms of energy up until that point. Korra couldn’t talk to either of them, no matter how hard she tried. She had gotten a few sounds when she went into the Avatar State with Raava, but nothing she could make out, despite the fact that she had been able to converse with Vaatu. Too busy fighting.

Korra made out a couple hundred small, grey, squat houses on the side of the dormant volcano as she got closer. They were all very plain, two rooms each, and a dark red slanted roof on top. They might've gone into the ground, but Korra couldn’t tell. None of them had windows either, making it look very bleak. She heard explosions as combustion benders practiced, and saw flashes of blue and red fire as firebenders fought. It was more like a military camp than anything, with about thirteen Agni Kai arenas set up across the mountainside. Korra braced herself; she might definitely have to make a hasty retreat.

Korra docked at their tiny port, seeing a couple of submarines there beside her. She tied down her vessel and hopped onto the port. Immediately, three firebenders ran out from behind a corner and stopped in front of her. They held out their fists, ready to fight, although thankfully, none of them were combustion benders. She spotted a combustion bender watching her from a guard tower, though. She put her hands up, and smiled.

“State your purpose for being here or else get the fuck away before we blast you off this port!” one growled.

“Hi, I want to learn how to combustion bend,” Korra greeted. “This place has a brilliant rep, so I thought I’d come here.”

“Cut the bullshit!” he warned. “You clearly water tribe, and even if you are a firebender, we only let people who were raised in the Fire Nation train here. So piss off!”

“I'm not welcome back in the South,” Korra tried, not wanting to reveal who she was unnecessarily. “I would be honoured to learn here at such a prestigious organisation.”

“Cut the lip-service!” the man growled, and brought his fist back to throw a fire-punch at Korra. But Korra got into a defensive stance, one of the guys beside him grabbed the first man’s wrist. “What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Lee, I think I recognise her,” he said, not letting go of Lee’s wrist. “This is gonna sound retarded, but I think she might be the Avatar. Look at her. I swear it’s her. I saw a picture of her in the papers a little while back when I was living on the mainland.”

“The Avatar?” Lee repeated, then looked back at Korra. Korra nodded to confirm this, not able to hide her identity very long, but still kept her hands up.

“That’s all the more reason to kill her then!” the third man came in, and Korra took a step back, ready to start swimming. “She’s probably here to destroy what we got going here, for the Fire Lord!”

“I’m on nobody’s side!” Korra stated. “I’ve been on the run for a while now. I fought the entire United Forces just about a month ago. They’d happily lock me up right now if they could.”

“The fuck you are!” Lee said, and broke out of the second man's hold. He threw two fire-uppercuts and an upwards fire kick at Korra, but she just spun out of the way of all three effortlessly. She didn’t retaliate, still not wanting to fight if possible. She heard the guard on the watch-tower call for reinforcements as the man named Lee threw a barrage of attacks at her. She dealt with them all easily, but soon enough though, fifteen more firebenders came around and surrounded her. There was one combustion bender in there too, to add to the one on the watch-tower.

“I’m not here to fight, for crying out loud!” Korra shouted, trying to cover her back, but having trouble dealing with Lee at the exact same time. She could have knocked him out without a problem, but it wouldn’t have been smart with all his friends around.

“Stop it, Lee!” a man’s voice called out, and Lee froze. His attacks stopped that very instant, and Korra breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” she said, looking around for the person who had ordered Lee to stop. She saw the only other combustion bender there, a tall man with long black hair and tight features, step forward in front of Korra. He stared at her, and she figured she wouldn’t be able to dodge a combustion bender only a few metres in front of her. She bowed respectfully.

“Don’t go making assumptions just yet,” he snarled with a deep voice. “Under normal circumstances, I’d have you killed right here and now. We select who we deem powerful enough to come to the island, anyone with a bit of sense wouldn’t dare come near here uninvited. Had you arrived not even a year ago, I’d have killed you without hearing you out.”

“So you know about what happened at the South Pole?” Korra asked, and the man’s mouth grew into a menacing smile.

“Most people here are shut off from the outside world, but I was chosen for my loyalty to the Master to keep an eye on domestic and international affairs,” he told her. Although his hair was black, he looked about forty or fifty. “And it was virtually impossible not to hear about what you did. But I do have one question to ask you. If you refuse, I’ll have you killed. We are nothing like you’ve ever faced before, so I wouldn’t advise it.”

“Go ahead,” Korra accepted.

“Did you take away the firebending of General Iroh II?”

A moment of hesitation. Then Korra answered. “Yes. And I don’t regret it.” Many of the firebenders visibly looked worried by her admission, but the man just accepted it with glee.

“You don’t intend on giving it back, do you?” he questioned.

“I made it very clear what happens to anyone who messes with my family because of a problem they have with me. So no, I don’t intend on it in the near future,” Korra stated calmly, keeping eye contact. “I can restrict your bending temporarily with bloodbending while I work on removing it permanently, so just because you can combustion bend doesn’t mean I can’t touch your forehead.”

“Is that a threat?” he challenged.

“It’s simply a fact,” Korra declared, not backing down. “And I don’t intend to use it unless absolutely necessary.”

“I will consult the Master about you,” he revealed, then raised his voice for everyone to hear. “I am going to mediate to speak to our Master, do not assault the Avatar unless provoked! I’ll be back whenever the Master sees fit.” With that, rockets of blue fire burst out of his hands and feet, and he flew off to behind a building, to where Korra couldn’t reach him with an attack.

 _He did that so casually_ , Korra thought as she watched him fly off. It took Korra a lot of concentration, to even hold rockets for more than a few seconds. Yet he did it as it was more convenient than just walking. She also noticed that he used his index and middle fingers to produce fire, something most White Lotus didn’t have the technique or ability to do. Channelling the power which would normally go through your forearm through two fingers took years to master. And she’d only ever heard of blue fire before, this was his first time seeing it.

He came back a few minutes later, graciously hovering down in front of Korra. He had an angry look on his face, but he didn’t let it show in his tone as he spoke;

“The Avatar is to have a personal meeting with the Master!” he declared, and all the firebenders' faces dropped, then turned to outrage a few seconds later.

“Why does she get to talk to the Master?!”

“That’s a lie!”

“It takes a combustion bender six years to earn that right, yet she can show up and do it in a minute?!”

“ARE YOU QUESTIONING A DIRECT ORDER?” the high-ranking combustion bender shouted, and the yard went quiet. He waited for a few seconds to get the message across, then looked back at Korra. “You really don’t know how lucky you are, Avatar. Follow me, I will escort you with four others.”

A gap appeared in the crowd, and although Korra got plenty of glares, no-one made anymore comments as she passed by them. The man strutted forward, and when they walked around the corner that most of the firebender had come from, there were four more combustion benders who’d been hanging back in case of a fight. Two flanked her on each side, and the man spearheaded the group.

“What’s your name?” Korra asked, and drew a sharp breath from all the others as the ground started to get steeper. The man waited for a minute before answering.

“Tatsuo,” he answered stiffly. Korra pursed her lips in annoyance, but didn’t say anything. She could tell he was right up his own ass from the few minutes they’d known each other.

“Anything interesting about here you can tell me?” Korra asked, seeing how far she could push it.

“Shut your dirty water-tribe mouth!” one of the combustion benders to her left said. She slapped Korra hard on the back of the head, and Korra turned to argue with her, but Tatsuo intervened.

“Daitan, you are not to attack the Avatar until she has had an appearance before the master!” Tatsuo scolded. “You are a combustion bender; you are well capable of controlling yourself!” The woman called Daitan looked down at the ground, and bit her tongue.

“I’m sorry,” she apologised. “I just didn’t like how casually she addressed you, sir.”

“You’re forgiven,” Tatsuo told Daitan, and shot Korra a dirty look. Korra didn’t return it this time, but just ignored it.

Korra started to pant as they went up the stairs that led to a grand set of doors carved into the mountain. The others were fine, having no trouble since they probably walked up and down this type of slope every day. Korra hadn’t had anything to eat in what felt like six hours, so she was doing it on an empty stomach too, but she didn’t dare complain. There was no conversation on the journey apart from when the woman called Daitan gave out to Korra, despite the hostility that she felt directed her way. She stood out like a sore thumb to anyone that saw her, given that she had water-tribe clothing and her skin was significantly darker than everyone else.

When they got to the top of the stairway, there was no visible handle, apart from a small hole in between one of the doors. She heard Tatsuo inhale deeply, and then saw him combustion bend into the tiny hole. She saw the inside light up as a small explosion occurred, which kick-started a mechanism. A few seconds later, the doors swung open silently.

 _There aren't any marks around the hole,_ Korra noted. _Combustion bending must be more precise than I would’ve thought_.

They went inside the doors, which immediately led to an elevator. From there, the four other combustion benders walked inside, and shut the doors behind them. Tatsuo walked into the elevator, and gestured for Korra to follow her in. Korra did, but was puzzled as the other combustion benders calmly watched the elevator doors shut without them inside. When they closed, Korra opened her mouth;

“Why aren’t they coming?” she asked.

“They aren’t worthy enough yet to be in the Master’s presence on a regular basis,” he answered dryly, not looking at Korra.

“What makes you so much better?” she posed the question, and she heard a little _tsk_ from Tatsuo.

“I’ve served here for over thirty years, the Master has deemed me worthy enough to be graced in by their presence on a regular basis,” Tatsuo stated proudly, letting a smile creep onto his otherwise stern face.

“Served here?” Korra asked, irritating Tatsuo by asking more questions. “What are you waiting for? And for how long have you been here?” Korra wanted to know as much as she could about this man, in case any of it might prove helpful in the future.

“Shut up with the questions!” he ordered coldly, the smile disappearing.

“Just those two, and then I’ll stop,” Korra tried to persuade him.

“You’re in no position to be making orders!” he barked.

“What’s the harm?” she tried, and he tried to retort, then thought about the questions carefully. After a few moments, he decided that they weren’t too probing.

“I moved here as a teenager because I felt the strong urge to protect my nation,” he told Korra. “The Fire Lord doesn’t approve of our methods, which have proven to be effective, so we had to find funding from a different source, if you’re wondering why we’re so involved in the drugs industry. We will defend the people of the Fire Nation when that pathetic excuse of an army crumbles under any real threat. We would’ve stopped Amon, and your late uncle, had they tried come near the fatherland. We don’t act within the interests or morality of foreign nations, only our own.”

“That’s ironic, seeing as combustion benders are descended from airbenders,” Korra stated smugly, and smirked as his fists clenched in anger.

“The Air Nomads were the victim of genocide,” he told her. “I have never known anyone who is an airbender, and my family have never practiced any tradition of the Air Nation! We live in a world where it is kill, or be killed, you as the Avatar would know that! I’m sure there have been occasions when you’ve killed before, surely?”

“No,” Korra stated matter-of-factly. “I haven’t, and I don’t intend resorting to that to fix my problems.” Tatsuo laughed.

“Life won’t always be so kind,” he informed her. “We have sent instructors to the Earth Kingdom for generous warlords to remind others of our power and ruthlessness when they happen to have a citizen with the ability to combustion bend. You will eventually realise that removing someone’s bending won’t always make them go away.”

Korra’s eyes widened as she remembered what Aang had told her just outside Republic city all those months ago. It was nearly word for word, if she remembered correctly. Even though she had been close to murdering people before, like General Iroh II or Zaheer when she thought he had killed her dad, she’d never actually felt enough conviction to deal the final blow. Unalok was different, he was long merged with Vaatu when she defeated him, and she would’ve spared him if possible. Korra wondered if she would be able to put her morality aside at a time when it would be needed.

The rest of the trip down was in silence, and when the elevator clunked down at the bottom, Korra felt a stifling heat wash over her as the doors opened. There was a long narrow hallway carved out of the rock, decorated with a red carpet and weavings on the walls. Korra could tell that they were below sea level, but not too deep, from the air pressure. She spotted a few air vents in the roof, which was probably where the oxygen came from.

“Do not speak unless spoken to, understood? And don’t look directly into her eyes, ever!” he ordered. Korra begrudgingly nodded, and they walked up to the doors, which had normal handles. He knocked slowly and methodically three times, then entered without getting an answer. Korra followed inside, and was taken aback.

Unlike how stark and spartan the rest of the island had been, this room, which was big enough to fit twenty mechasuits comfortably, was lavished with decorations. The walls were filled with tapestries of all colours, the floor was covered with a thick red carpet and blue candles lit the room. There were couches galore, and a queen-sized bed in the corner, but the 'Master', as they were called, sat on a cushion in the middle on a raised platform. They were wearing a velvet cloak, and although Korra could tell that they had white hair, she couldn’t make out their face.

Tatsuo practically fell down onto his knees and bowed so much that his nose touched the carpet. Korra did the same to a much lesser extent, although after a few seconds, she sat up. Tatsuo didn’t though, and stayed in that position as he spoke.

“The Avatar is here, Master,” he declared, any hint of cockiness in his voice from before gone.

“It’s an honour to be in your presence,” Korra greeted, knowing that she had to win over this person if she wanted to learn how to combustion bend.

“Good,” their voice rasped. They were a woman, and a very old one at that. “Is it true, Avatar? Do you wish to learn from me?”

“Yes, I’ve heard of the reputation of your island, and I know that this would be the best place to learn,” Korra requested, looking up at the woman’s feet.

“What… what do you wish to learn, girl? We have never let anyone who wasn’t raised in the Fire Nation learn here? Why should we treat you different, just because you’re the Avatar, hmm?”

“A late combustion bender told me to come here,” Korra told the elderly lady. “She specifically said Crescent Island, so I thought I should heed her advice. I wish to learn how to combustion bend. It’s my job to keep the balance in the world.”

“Ha, ha, ha!” the lady laughed. “You don’t know how many times I’ve heard that phrase from your predecessor, the rotten prick. Do you think I give a damn about the 'balance' of the world? If you did your job, I wouldn't have needed to create this society over sixty years ago!” Korra ignored the jibe about Aang.

“Please,” Korra tried. “I’ll do anything within my power to win you over so long as it doesn’t involve murder.”

“Anything within your power…” the woman purred, but it was malicious. Even though Korra had barely started talking to her, she got a nasty vibe. If Katara was a kind grandmother, this woman here was the type who would have their children in an arranged marriage. It was a big assumption, but Korra couldn’t shake it.

“Yes,” Korra said reluctantly, not wanting to back down from an offer she just made.

“Well, well, well,” the woman said, and turned her attention to Tatsuo. “Tatsuo! Wait at the elevator. I think our friend the Avatar may be willing to solve the problem I’ve had for the past thirty years. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?” Her voice was very articulate and precise.

“Are you sure, Master?” Tatsuo asked, still bowed down.

“Are you questioning my decision?!” she demanded from him, and he visibly paled.

“No, no, no!” Tatsuo reassured her, and scampered out of the room, closing the doors gently behind him. Korra wiped a bead of seat from her brow, the heat still intense, and stood up. She looked at the old woman in the face.

She had somewhere in between gold and amber eyes, and a ton of wrinkles. When she got up as well, she moved with a natural slowness of old age, yet she didn’t give a hint of senility. Her cheek bones were sharp, and she had her all her hair stretched back tightly in a traditional Fire Nation bun. She had the tattoo of a combustion bender on her forehead, except while all the combustion benders she’d seen had red tattoos, hers was blue.

“What do you have in mind?” Korra asked as the old woman walked up and around her.

“There are dozens of things I could request of you,” she started, “many of them, you would loathe to even think about, nevertheless carry out. But my utmost concern would be casual for you, believe it or not. You have one ability in the world for certain that no-one else possesses.”

“To take someone’s bending away?” Korra asked, remembering Tatsuo’s question about Iroh II. “Amon could do that.”

“Yes,” she acknowledged, “but what I want is the opposite. “I want you to restore someone’s ability to firebend. Mine, to be precise.”

“Your ability to firebend!?” Korra repeated, taking a step back. “You can’t firebend?”

“I was the strongest firebender in the world,” she informed Korra, checking her nails as if they were talking about the weather. “I fought your predecessor countless times over my life, and nearly every time I came out on top, even when he went into the Avatar State. He was noble, but I was always one step ahead.”

“You beat him multiple times, even when he had the Avatar State?” Korra asked, trying to feel for her heartbeat, but the carpet was too thick to sense vibrations through.

“Yes,” she declared, walking around Korra. Korra moved away, weary of a potential knife attack, but she didn’t get one. “I would charge on the Fire Nation palace, but he was always able to defeat enough of my army that we would be forced to retreat. Then, the last time we laid siege, was the only time he managed to defeat me. That was over thirty years ago, coming up to thirty-one. Do you know why my tattoo is blue?”

“No,” Korra admitted.

“It’s because I am the only combustion bender in recorded history to be able to split my combustion attack into two! And I could still control them both flawlessly,” she stated.

“In two?!” Korra repeated, momentarily dropping her guard. “That’s incredible!”

“It was,” she agreed, stopping and looking at Korra in the eye. “That’s the reason why the few people who know this secret still respect me, even though I’ve lost all my bending capabilities. Especially Tatsuo. When he first saw it, he was in awe and grovelled at me. He has proven to be an exceptional combustion bender, and my most loyal servant. I thought he could perhaps be the one to equal me, but he never met one criteria I came to realise myself twelve years ago.”

“What’s that?” Korra asked, eager to learn.

“I am not descended from someone of airbender genes,” she said. “But I had something even more important; I’m descended from an Avatar, and their blood still courses through my veins.”

“An Avatar,” Korra said, then an idea came to her head. “Does that mean I could do that too?”

“Perhaps,” she hinted, “if you master the technique. It would usually take years upon years for someone talented, but I reckon that you could have it done in under six months.”

“Really?” Korra asked, getting enthusiastic. “How come?”

“You’re the Avatar!” the woman told her. “Uou have more potential than any else in the world by a mile! But there is one requirement you aren’t born with.”

“What is it?” Korra asked.

“Do you hate anyone deeply enough that you would combustion bend against them?” the woman asked. “Once you unlock combustion bending, it isn’t necessary anymore, but you must hate them enough to imagine blowing them up while in training.”

Korra thought of someone she despised, someone she could almost certainly never forgive, and immediately, one man came to mind. Not General Iroh II. The man who rejected his own daughter when her mother couldn’t be around. 

Mako. She’d generally avoided thinking about him up until now, as he wasn’t worth her time, but this was an acceptable occasion.

“Yes,” she answered clearly. “One man in particular.”

“Good,” the woman said, and then knelt down in front of Korra. “Do it now, and we can begin training tomorrow.”

“Do it now?” Korra repeated. “You mean, restore your bending?”

“Yes, that is the agreement!” the woman snapped. “You restore my firebending and I teach you personally how to combustion bend. I am the best firebending teacher in the world, you should be begging to be taught by me!”

“How did Aang manage to take away your bending?” Korra asked, a little sceptical. “How could he touch your forehead if you’re a combustion bender? He couldn’t bloodbend, as far as I know.” Korra would’ve been blown up by now otherwise if this woman could, but she needed to make sure.

“I was smashed into a wall and knocked out,” the woman answered, annoyed.

“I don’t think it’s something I should do on the basis of knowing you for five minutes,” Korra told her. “If you’re going to get your bending back, you’ll teach me first. That’s my only condition.”

“That’s preposterous!” the woman shouted, snapping her head up. “You came to my island to learn from me! You will obey my terms!”

“I don’t need to know how to combustion bend as much as you want your bending back,” Korra stated calmly.

The woman stared at Korra furiously, but the desperation was clear in her eyes. After a minute of neither backing down, she chuckled bitterly.

“You’re nothing like your predecessor,” she admitted. “He was a coward, and tried to run away from his problems. But you’re the opposite. Very few people have beaten me verbally in my life. We’ll get on brilliantly.” She stood up and looked Korra in the eye. “From now on, you will refer to me as Master. We will begin training tomorrow at dawn, with the rising sun.” She turned to walk back to her seat.

“I think we should call each by our first names,” Korra said, and the woman turned back.

“You really love to take risks, don’t you?” the old woman stated.

“I’m Korra,” Korra started. “You?” The woman smiled like a fox, accepting the request.

“Azula.”


	31. The Serpent's Pupil

Korra was quiet the entire way back to her living quarters, one of the identical bleak houses that were dotted along the island. Many other firebenders glared at Korra, wondering why she wasn’t gone by this point, but Tatsuo told them that the Master had agreed to personally train her. Then, there would be the initial eyes widening and mouth gaping open, before a look of pure could contempt would attempt to scare her away.

Korra just kept her head down most of the time, but she did notice one thing; no-one travelled in groups at all, apart from the odd pair of combustion benders. Her curiosity was definitely aroused, but she couldn’t help but feel a bottomless pit of regret in her stomach.

Korra had just promised to give Azula, the person who had infiltrated and taken over Ba Sing Sae at age fourteen, her firebending back. For the sake of learning to combustion bend as well, when it was common knowledge that they were the type to die young. 

Azula regularly defeated Aang in the Avatar State in her prime, and she ran a whole society of elite firebenders who would obey her every word, despite not having been able to firebend herself for three decades. Korra realised on the way back that Azula had probably planned out the entire conversation right up until the end. She wouldn’t have sent Tatsuo out of the room if she wasn’t completely sure of herself.

Tatsuo had acted shocked, but Korra realised after that he was in on it, with how easily he accepted it, given that she had received a fairly hostile reception upon arrival.

“Don’t you dare be late for the Master,” Tatsuo warned, then shut the door behind Korra as she walked inside. The interior was barely nicer than the outside. She was downstairs, and here there was a table, one chair, a bath with no pipes connected to it, a bucket labelled 'Drinking Water', and a pot. She went over to it, and then snapped her head back, holding her nose. It reeked; the purpose of the pot was fairly obvious.

Next, Korra climbed the ladder leading to the only other room. There was a bed, a wardrobe, and surprisingly, a mirror. There was an oil lamp in the far corner, and no window. Korra jumped onto the bed, which threatened to break upon receiving the extra weight, and buried her head in the pillow, musing over her thoughts. Kalla, somehow, didn’t come into her mind once, for the first time since she’d been born and Korra had been alone.

After half an hour, someone knocked loudly on the door. Korra rolled out of bed and hurried down the ladder. She rested her hand on the wall, feeling for vibrations, and only sensed one person out there. The person outside had something in her arms, so Korra opened the door. A regular firebender, who barely looked fourteen, was holding a pile of red clothes.

“I’ve been told to give you these,” the girl stated nonchalantly, as if she’d been forced to clean graffiti off of a wall, and dropped them at Korra's feet. Korra looked down at the pile of clothes, and then back up to give the teenager a piece of her mind, but she was already walking away.

“Come back here!” Korra demanded.

“Piece of advice,” the girl said without looking back, “don’t go wearing those hideous clothes you have on right now every day, _seal_!” The girl flipped Korra off, and Korra felt her blood rising. She wanted to go and pummel that girl into the ground for using a racial slur against her, but this was the one place on the planet she wouldn’t get away with it, unfortunately, and the girl knew that.

“I’ll have my way with you eventually,” Korra muttered, then reluctantly picked up the clothes and shut the door. She locked it using the bolt, which she hadn’t noticed earlier, and used airbending to blow the clothes up into the bedroom. She went through them, and then changed. It took her a few minutes to put them on the right way, but when she fitted the headpiece in, giving herself a traditional Fire Nation bun, she wasn’t too sad to be switching clothing. (This is what I have in mind - https://www.reddit.com/r/legendofkorra/comments/hm0nxi/korra_in_fire_nation_clothes/ 

“It’s certainly could’ve been worse,” Korra said out loud, and put on the boots. They were a little hard to get her foot into, but with a little wear-and-tear, that’d all change. She lit a fire in the palm of her hand, and posed a little more. Then, Korra remembered that she would be getting up early the next day, and decided to get an early night. She’d probably be wearing these a lot, so she concluded maybe it wasn’t the best to look at it so much already. She got changed for bed, and went to sleep.

  
Korra arrived in front of the doors at the top of the stairway she’d gone up the day before, just after dawn. Azula was waiting there with a black cloak. Korra naturally woke up with the rising sun, but she’d learnt to ignore it as she had with the moon at night. She groggily walked up to Azula in her new Fire Nation clothes, rubbing her eyes.

“What the matter with you?” Azula demanded as a bolt of lightning streaked into the sky from far away. This seemed to be a popular training time. “Has your enthusiasm worn away already?”

“No,” Korra answered. “I’m just tired. Can’t I have breakfast first?”

“You can have something to eat when you've earned it,” Azula replied, giving Korra a slap on the head. “Follow me.” She walked away briskly, leaving Korra staring at her moodily before following. There was a natural path around the mountain, and Azula started going along it briskly. Despite her appearance the day before, she was actually quite mobile.

“That’s where Roku Temple once stood,” Korra noted as they passed the halfway point. She was referring to a flat stump in the otherwise uneven mountainside.

“Yes,” Azula said. “Destroyed over seventy years ago by Avatar Roku himself, supposedly.”

“Wasn’t he dead by that point?” Korra asked.

“Do you always ask so many questions?” Azula asked, not in the mood for a nice little conversation.

“Alright then,” Korra said, deciding not to follow through with her question. They walked around the other side and found a large Agni Kai arena carved into the rock. Korra saw that Azula was heading for it, and used airbending to hop over her and landed softly with a somersault. Azula, however, was not impressed.

“Why are you using _airbending_ on my island?!” she demanded, furious.

“Sorry,” Korra apologised, putting her hands up. “I didn’t think it was such a big deal.”

“IT IS A BIG DEAL!” Azula shouted, spitting in Korra’s face while she gave out. “I’d rather have the reputation of my island held to its rightful standard and not get my bending back, than have the Avatar dance around with airbending whenever she feels like it!”

“Sorry, Azula,” Korra apologised again. “I won’t bend anything other than fire while I’m here.”.

“ _Master_ Azula,” Azula corrected her. “If you’re going to refer to me by my first name, then you should also respect the fact that I am your teacher.”

“Master Azula,” Korra corrected herself, bowing and putting all her pride behind her. “I’ll behave better in the future. If it’s okay with you, I would like to begin training.”

“Very well,” Azula agreed. “But first, I need to talk about some other things. From now on, we will spend three hours at dawn and three hours at dusk every day training, to accelerate your progress. You can get breakfast, lunch and dinner simply by showing up to the designated buildings, but seconds are strictly forbidden. The average combustion bender in training spends two hours a day, usually at dawn, but I am going to squeeze every ounce of potential out of you.”

“Sounds good,” Korra said, looking up, not daunted by the extreme schedule.

“There is one big rule for those learning to combustion bend,” Azula continued. “The ability to combustion bend requires detachment socially, so you are not to make any friends while here, even though you wouldn’t anyway, being water-tribe. If we’re only talking about blue fire, your desire of negativity must be clear in your mind, although a few friends are fine. Complacency will stop you from moving forward completely. Once you’ve mastered combustion bending, you can have normal friendships and relationships so long as your hatred doesn’t wither. If you don’t hate someone enough, you won’t be able to follow through completely on the explosion.”

“How do I start, Master Azula?” Korra asked.

“Slow down,” Azula told Korra. “There are several stages to learning combustion bending. But I think that since you were trained under the White Lotus, you should surely have at least some of the starters down. Shoot your most power bolt of lightning into the sky.”

“Lightning?” Korra repeated, pursing her lips nervously.

“No, thunder,” Azula said sarcastically. “Of course, lightning!”

“No problem,” Korra declared after a moment, her eyes darting to the side, and then she walked to the edge of the arena, facing the sea. The breeze whipped her hair around, and Korra got into position. She glanced back at Azula, who was standing there, with her arms folded.

“I’m waiting,” Azula stated, and Korra nodded with a gulp. She started to go through the motions, touching her index and middle fingers together. When she felt ready, she extended her right arm out to the ocean, and concentrated her chi in a violent, sharp burst out of her fingers.

The space just in front of Korra’s fingers exploded, and she was thrown back from the shockwave. Korra cried out as she landed on her back painfully. She lay there as Azula stalked over her, memories of trying to produce lightning with her old firebending teacher, Mu Zhao, coming back. All the memories of her failing, to be more precise.

“What was that?!” Azula demanded. “That’s even more pathetic than my brother back when we lived together!”

“It’s been a monkey I can’t get off my back,” Korra confessed, sitting up. “After I learnt to redirect lightning, Katara insisted that I didn’t need to know how to produce lightning so long as I could defend myself against it.”

“Katara…” Azula muttered, then fell deep into thought. Korra didn’t realise that Katara and Azula had personal history together, so she kept quiet while Azula brooded. Then, after a minute, Azula said; “I despise that old hag! I would’ve been Fire Lord, if it weren’t for her!”

Korra kept her mouth sealed shut, even though she felt strongly like defending Katara. She knew that sometimes it was better not to say anything at all, rather than whatever you had on your mind. She brushed herself off, and stood up.

“Do you have any tips for me then?” Korra asked, and Azula came back to the present.

“That is disgraceful!” Azula scolded her. “If any other student showed that to me, I’d kick them off the island, end of discussion!”

“Well, we’re stuck with each other,” Korra replied, and drew a dirty look from Azula. “What’s something more basic?”

“Well,” Azula began, thinking. “If that’s your best attempt at creating lightning, we’d better start from the very beginning. Lightning exercises your ability to direct the chaotic stream of energy, but what I have in mind will be as good a starting point as any. I want you to raise a wall of fire as far away as possible from the ground, and hold it for as long as you can.”

“How will that help me?” Korra asked.

“The longer you can hold it up properly,” Azula explained, not exasperated with this question, “is a good indicator of how far you can reach with combustion bending. The ferocity of your fire shows how explosive your combustion bending can be. That’s not too hard to grasp, is it?”

“Ferocity…” Korra mumbled with her eyes shut as she memorised it all, and opened them a few moments later. She turned away from Azula, took a deep breath, and splayed her fingers out in front of her. She tried to reach out ten metres in front of her, but even that was too much. So Korra decided to start off very short, and concentrated on one metre in front of her. She let her fingers limply point to the ground, then brought her hands up. She was greatly tempted to earthbend, but she focused on burning the chi as hard as she could.

A twenty foot tall, twelve foot wide wall of fire erected itself in front of Korra. She grinned and held it up for thirty-five seconds, before finally dropping it and looking to Azula, seeking praise. She didn’t get any though.

“The raw power is there,” Azula admitted, “but the distance you set for yourself is pathetic! Do you hope to blow yourself up too while you’re fighting? I want you to raise a wall as far away from your body as you can. Don’t focus on the power just yet, we have a few hours to burn your chi, I want consistency the entire time in your output.”

“Understood,” Korra said, and held her fingers out limp once again. She reached as far away as possible, but she found very quickly that even a metre extra took up a fair bit of energy. She got to six metres, when she realised, she couldn’t go any further, and raised another wall of fire.

The wall, even though Korra was putting in a third of the energy she had put in for the first wall, was only four foot tall and three foot wide. Even worse, it didn’t roar, but meowed weakly. Korra tried her best to keep it up for as long as she could, but after fifteen seconds, she gave in.

“Spirits,” Azula mumbled, putting a hand on her forehead. “This could well take longer than I’d anticipated.”

“How long?” Korra asked, slightly offended, but also knew that her wall had looked prettier than it was harmful.

“With the amount you’ll be training…” Azula started, calculating in her head. “It will probably take up to a year until you can combustion bend at your current amount of training, if that’s really how far you can erect a wall right now.”

“A year?” Korra repeated, dismayed. “But won’t it be overkill if I train for six hours every day for a full year?”

“Stop whining!” Azula told her off, having no problem exerting her authority, and held out a lock of white hair. “It’ll be worse for me, I don’t know how much longer I have left to live! Take a small breather, then get right back into it.”

Korra sat down on a bench on the edge of the arena, while Azula got herself a foldable chair hidden behind a rock, and sat in it, her legs crossed. Korra waited a minute, then got up again. She hyped herself up, then went again. The same result occurred, but she didn’t give up. 

Korra kept on trying for another half an hour, then kicked he ground in frustration. Azula, who’d been watching carefully, walked over to Korra. She’d made what seemed like no progress, and her walls of fire weren’t too big, as she had to conserve energy.

“UGH!” Korra moaned out loud, frustrated. “This is so fucking annoying! I’ve been trying for ages, but I haven’t made one tiny bit of progress! There’s got to be a better way of doing this.”

“There is no 'easy' way,” Azula told Korra. “But there are one or two places where you could be doing better. They’re very subtle, but over the course of an extended period of time, they could make a huge difference.”

“Really?” Korra asked, perking up. “Where?”

“Your stances are probably a result of that probending nonsense, aren’t they?” Azula noted.

“How did you know I used to probend?” Korra asked, thinking that Azula was holed up the most of the time.

“I didn’t,” Azula told her, “but I’ve seen it in the newer recruits. The modern style seems to be stay light on your feet with little regard for the proper technique, wasting your chi.”

“But that’s better for combat,” Korra countered. “If I stood planted during probending, I’d get wiped out in an instant.”

“Because from the photos I’ve seen, you’re close enough to kiss your opponent!” Azula exaggerated. “It certainly suits benders with less chi overall to draw someone as naturally powerful as yourself closer in, but the last thing a combustion bender wants is to have their opponent up in their face.”

“Can you show me the 'proper' technique then?” Korra requested, sceptical.

“I’d be glad to,” Azula obliged. “Copy me.” She planted her feet shoulder-width apart, and splayed her hands out in front like Korra had. “The only powerful bender I’ve ever faced that preferred to fight in close quarters was your predecessor, and that’s because he was an airbender.”

Korra got into the stance as she saw it, and prepared to raise another wall, but Azula wasn’t happy with it. She went right up to Korra, and stomped on her feet.

“Ow!” Korra exclaimed, noticing that Azula had heels on for the first time. “What was that for?!”

“These are the basics, for crying out loud!” Azula complained. “Drive your heels into the ground and keep them there! If you were at a weight-lifting gym, you wouldn’t be able to squat your max weight on your toes, now would you? Maybe if you’re squatting something lighter, you can get away with it because your leg muscles are still capable of squatting with that form, but you’re not performing to your maximum potential! Then, when you’re competing, the person you’re against with proper form will be able to squat more than you. You have a confrontational personality, I can tell by the small amount of conversation we’ve had already, so that should help. Does all that add up for you, or do I need to simplify it even more?”

Korra brooded over what Azula had said. Even though she was fairly abrupt with it, what the old lady had said was very straightforward, and hard to argue with. Korra planted her feet in the ground, and closed her eyes, concentrating hard.

“You have to be firm, but delicate at the same time,” Azula taught. “Fire, although you’re raising it from rocks, will still ravage and destroy everything in its path. If you don’t make it respect you, you’ll be swallowed up and incinerated. It is growing all the time. You need to tame it, like you would tame a wild animal in a circus. Let it roar, but keep a firm grip on the leash.”

Korra soaked up all this information and focused on the same spot she’d been practicing with so far. She implemented what she’d been doing wrong into her technique as she input the same amount of power as before. She stood firm, and instead of dragging it up, she mentally wrenched it upwards and raised another wall of fire.

The wall soared upwards, nearly as big as her very first wall, and blazed brightly in stark contrast to the others, which had been flickering. It was thicker too, about a metre or so more. Korra controlled her breathing, and held it there, with much less effort, despite how much bigger it was. After a full minute, she finally dropped it, and looked over to Azula.

“What do you think?” Korra asked, her frustration almost disappearing at her sudden progress.

“That’s much, much better,” Azula admitted. “But that’s what I expected of you before we came here! Don’t think that you going to start flying through this now, because you always had that power, you just haven’t been using it right!”

* * *

  
Korra flopped down on her bed, exhausted. She had been sweating buckets by the time she got home, not being able to waterbend the sweat off until she was sure no-one else was watching. She’d finished her second training session of the day nearly an hour ago, and had spent the meantime getting her food from the storehouse and devouring it in her new home. There were three meals a day, and they were actually decent. You got breakfast, lunch and dinner, then were allowed to do whatever you wanted after morning training. There was a library and Pai Sho hall for leisure. Korra was told that most people here left after they finished their training, but ready to return to fight for the Fire Nation if necessary.

Word had spread fairly quickly about her arrival, even though most of the time people avoided each other. In secret though, they’d start up conversations (she could sense them through the earth) and chat to each other. She always felt a pair of eyes on her whenever she passed by anyone. They didn’t trust her, which was to be expected, she supposed.

The training was brutal, but at the end of the second session, her fire was half a metre further away than at the beginning of the day. Azula may have been a strict teacher, but Korra physically felt an improvement already. Azula didn’t beat around the bush when instructing, and Korra nearly learnt as much as she improved. There were so many finer details that the White Lotus had never gone into, or maybe they hadn’t even known, perhaps. Korra had even managed to get a complement from Azula when they were done:

_If we keep up this pace, Korra relayed from her memory, you might finish in eleven months. That’s only if you train as hard as you did today though. And not taking into account rest days, which you will inevitably want._

_Thanks so much, Azula_! Korra had said, much to the irritation of her teacher. _I mean, Master Azula._

 _Don’t expect so complements many in the future_ , Azula had retorted. She wasn’t very good at being friendly, and didn’t hide the fact for one instant that she was only in it because it would benefit her so much.

Still, though, Korra reckoned she could break down that wall over the next while.

  
**I just want to thank im-caelli for letting me use her art. It is brilliant, and I’d definitely recommend to go and see her other work. I’m not just saying that either, it really is top-notch. Check her out on Tumblr**


	32. Back in Ba Sing Sae

_This chapter takes place one year and a couple days after Chapter 1_

Mako walked up to the platform, his suitcase packed. He’d earned a little bit of money working in a restaurant for the past month, purely so that he could help fund the project. In his spare time in his tiny, run-down apartment, he devised up a serious amount of arguments in favour of decriminalising lavabending, with the limited knowledge he had of Ba Sing Sae’s legal system. He poked his head above the crowd and spotted Ling, Nel and Mo all standing together in a circle, chatting. It was 7:30am, very early to be getting a train, but they needed to be getting to most out of their days from now on, and that meant no sleeping in.

“Mako!” Ling greeted, happy to see his new friend, and gave Mako a short hug as he walked up to them. “Excited?”

“Can’t wait!” Mako agreed, and greeted the other two. It had only been a month, but over that short period of time, he had really bonded with them all. Mako wasn’t great at meeting new people, but Ling had gone to extra lengths to make sure he felt included. Mako could see why him and Bolin were such good friends, Ling was one of those people it was hard not to like. He never took a joke too far. He generally didn’t make fun of other people, but when he did, mainly with Bolin, it was always in good humour.

None of the others had any qualms with Mako coming along to help. He thought it might be a bit hard winning them over since he was a firebender, but not at all. They were all genuinely good people.

“I’ve gotta say, Mako,” Mo started, “you’ve really been working hard on those arguments. You’re better at phrasing them than any of us, and whenever you’re presenting them, you never look stupid.”

“Practice,” Mako answered, grimacing at the memories of stuttering in front of Lin Beifong back in his early days as a cop.

They talked for another twenty minutes before Bolin finally arrived, the train due very soon. Opal was with him, holding his hand, desperately trying to convince him to not go. Bolin already looked worn out, but politely rebuffed her time and time again.

“Bolin, please,” Opal begged him, grabbing both his hands and turning his full body to face her. “I know that you told me you’re not going to change your mind a week ago, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying. It’s a huge risk you don’t need to take!”

“Opal, you know that I love you, more than anyone else in the world,” Bolin started. “But I need to spread my wings. I know that what me and the others have going on here in Zaofu is great and all, but we’ve already officially notified all our students that the classes are done. This is my ambition, Opal, I’ve been waiting for years and years for my calling in life, and now that I’ve recognised what it is, I have to follow through on it! I don’t want to die regretting what I didn’t do.”

“You're being dramatic,” Opal told him, but any conviction behind the sentence was gone.

“If that’s what you think, I’m ok with that,” Bolin said, looking into her eyes. “I’ll make sure to send you at least one letter a week. I love you, sweetheart.” Opal looked forlornly at the ground, then finally gave in.

“I love you too,” Opal replied, and pulled Bolin into a deep kiss. It looked over the top to passer-by’s, but to Mako, Ling, Nel and Mo, it was a regular occurrence. After the kiss, they hugged for another minute until the train arrived.

“Bolin, we haven’t got all day!” Nel called. He didn’t tend to say much, but when he did, it was usually to-the-point. “The next train isn’t for another two hours, we need to go now.”

“I love you,” Bolin repeated, then let go of Opal. He walked over to the others, bags under his eyes to add to the massive one on his back.

“That’s got to be the first time I’ve ever seen him and Opal separated,” Ling sniggered to Mako, and Mako chuckled in agreement. At first, he’d thought Ling had been exaggerating when he said that they were never separated when close together, but it was actually true. If he didn’t know better, Mako would’ve assumed that they glued themselves together.

“You don’t look so good,” Nel commented. “You look wrecked.”

“I didn’t sleep at all last night,” Bolin revealed. “We were up arguing the entire time.”

“That’s rough,” Mo said. “But we’d better get on the train now. I’ve changed our route, the Omashu situation is getting really bad. There have even been reports of people from Omashu beating up people going to Ba Sing Sae.”

“What? When?” Nel asked. “I didn’t hear anything about this.”

“Me neither,” said Mako. “I thought we discussed everything a few days ago, the route has been nailed down for weeks!”

“I’ll explain it all on the train,” Mo promised. Mako, Bolin, Ling and Nel were all a bit pissed off, but they didn’t have any time to argue with Mo, so they all followed him on. Bolin shared one last look with Opal as he boarded last, then disappeared as the door slid closed. Opal watched sadly as the train rolled out of the station, all her efforts now confirmed as being in vain.

“I’m not being selfish,” she repeated to herself, but once again, she didn’t find any conviction behind her words. She turned and slowly started walking back to bus stop she’d gotten off from just a few minutes ago.

The five of them sat down across four sets of seats. Mo and Nel sat beside each other opposite Mako, who was on his own. Bolin and Ling were sitting opposite each other on the other table, leaning in. Ling started:

“Why’d you change it without asking any of us?” Ling asked. “I know that we gave you the money for our tickets, but nothing is too small to leave out if we want to make it.”

“Hear me out, because there’s a lot that’s contributed to my decision,” Mo said, and everyone who wanted to ask a question decided to wait. “Like I’ve already told you, there’s a big political issue going on between Ba Sing Sae and Omashu. It’s been going back to the end of the 100-Year-War, but it wasn’t too much of an issue until King Wu decided to turn the Kingdom into a democracy. Each state will have a certain number of seats in the general parliament according to their size and population, as well as countless other factors.

“But with Omashu, they weren’t happy in the slightest with the number of seats they got,” Mo continued. “They wanted equal seats with Ba Sing Sae, but didn’t even get half. Although the official capital of the Earth Kingdom used to be Ba Sing Sae, the eastern half would have generally recognised Omashu as the capital. They even have a king of the city, who has an official palace. But despite this, anything they suggest that doesn’t suit Ba Sing Sae struggles to gain traction.”

“But I thought that they were all independent countries, like the United Republic of Nations,” Bolin interjected. “What would they need to vote on?”

“Corporation tax, basic rights, size of armies,” Mo suggested, “just to name a few. With corporation tax, for a large, multinational company, a few percent lower could mean millions more in profit. That means that that multinational company will want to set up headquarters in one state where it’s lower over another, and bring thousands of jobs with them. As for human rights, not all states will bother creating laws protecting firebenders or waterbenders being racially discriminated against.

“But the military one is the biggest of them all. Some states aren’t nearly big enough to compete with their neighbours, so there has been a bill passed to downsize armies according to various factors, but the problem is, that Omashu and Ba Sing Sae have turned a blind eye to it in their dispute. So, because of the two big guns rejecting it, none of the smaller states have accepted it either, and there’s no way to enforce it. So overall, I think it’s just better if we take a bit of a longer route.”

Everyone went quiet, seeing the logic behind Mo’s decision.

“Do you think we should try to go to a different state then, if Ba Sing Sae is about to go to war?” Nel posed the question after a minute, saying what everyone else was thinking. “We discussed backup cities in case Ba Sing Sae doesn’t get off the ground, but we might just skip Ba Sing Sae altogether if that’s the case.”

“No, there won’t actually be a war,” Mo reassured them. “Even changing our route is fairly precautionary.”

“Not really,” Mako came in. “I showed the reception lady my passport when I was leaving United Republic, because the quickest route didn’t have free travel, and she brought that up to. It had special verification from Ba Sing Sae because I was Wu's bodyguard before he decided to introduce democracy, and she warned me to keep it at the bottom of my bag. I didn’t see anything when I passed through, but I’d still be wary about going there.”

“And the Avatar is in hiding at the minute,” Mo added. “So she won’t be sitting down at a negotiating table anytime soon.”

“If worse comes to worst, other states could get dragged in for promise of a reward,” Nel pointed out. “If enough states join in, refusing to fight for one of the cities could make you the enemy. We could about to get stuck in the middle of a civil war between the East and West of the former Earth Kingdom.”

Everyone was quiet for a few minutes after that statement, realising how all their hopes and aspirations could be wiped away with the very real threat of war. But after a while, Ling slammed his hand on the table, to catch everyone's attention.

“The Fire Nation, with all their advanced technology, couldn’t penetrate Ba Sing Sae with their armies for nearly all of the 100-Year-War,” Ling reminded them. “We’ve spent too long getting ready for this to back down at the first sign of resistance. It hasn’t even been ten minutes, and we’re already getting cold feet! Bolin, if you had never faced that lava head on, you might have never found out that you could lavabend and have died right there! We’re earthbenders, we face our problems head on!”

“That’s right!” Bolin agreed. “If you’re passionate enough about something, you can make it. We're not going to a smaller city unless it genuinely isn’t bearing any fruit!”

“It was just precautionary,” Mo repeated. “To avoid any potential extra hassle.”

“I’m only coming because I think I can help convince Wu,” Mako reminded them. “So I’m against skipping Ba Sing Sae.”

“It decided then!” Ling declared, his optimism infectious. “We go ahead as planned.”

They all agreed and spent the next few hours chatting away. Ling was very good at keeping the conversation from going dead. He was the best story-teller Mako had ever met. Average stories, he could tell good, but when he had a particularly funny story, he dealt it out perfectly.

Mako learnt that Ling had grown up in Zaofu and lived there all his life. Ling had known that he could lavabend when he was eight, in a playground. He recalled the horrified looks of the parents in great detail. At the time, he didn’t even know he could earthbend, which was very late for any type of bender. So he’d started crying, and only figured that he was an earthbender later. After the playground equipment was in ruins, of course.

One thing he didn’t joke about was the general reaction to lavabending. The vast majority of earthbenders in Zaofu were metalbenders, so it automatically distanced him from a lot of friend groups. People would also be afraid to befriend him because they didn’t know if he could control it or not. Lavabending was the ugly duck of earthbending, so Ling kept it secret and didn’t tell anyone new after he became a teenager and caught on to social cues.

But then, Bolin came along, dating the daughter of the one and only Suyin Beifong, and was actually proud of his ability to lavabend. Bolin won a lot of the public over with his positive attitude, and Ling had instantly felt a liking to this new guy. Bolin was someone that Ling could be open with, without having to hide his ability. 

Ling could tell that even his own little sister didn’t like lavabending either, even though she could very well have been a lavabender herself. She’d never brought it up, but it was in the way she addressed it over the course of time. The tone was very subtle, but Ling could tell.

“That’s deep, man,” Mako said as Ling finished. This train journey was the first time he’d really ever gotten to know Ling well. Bolin, Ling, Nel and Mo all went out drinking fairly regularly, and Mako was welcome to come along, but he swore that he was never going to drink again, or at least not for a long time. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s all good, bro,” Ling told Mako, his usual happy mood a little dampened. “A lot of people have had it worse than me. The problem is, the tag sticks to you so much. No-one says it to your face, but they all give that look. I’m surprised Bolin didn’t get much of it. Then again, you didn’t discover it until you were seventeen, so you knew how to act around people by then.”

“I never did it in public,” Bolin mentioned. “Although, there was that one time when Kuivera came in the mechasuit, but everyone had evacuated the city by then.” Bolin was confused by a frustrated look from Nel, then realised what he’d done. All the heads from around the carriage, albeit there weren’t many, turned at the mention of Kuivera. That name was taboo anywhere these days in the Earth Kingdom States.

“It was the same for me and Nel,” Mo said, breaking the silence, “although on a smaller scale. We weren’t as open and social as Ling when we were younger, so we didn’t tell everyone that we just met.”

“That sounds horrible,” Mako said. The group went quiet for a minute, not sure how to follow up something that personal. Ling decided to get into funny stories about his past, and the mood lightened up. They were all laughing a few minutes later.

As everyone was joking away, Mako looked out the window and saw his own reflection. His authentic smile shone back at him. He had always appreciated how hard things could be when he growing up, but he had forgotten how hollow things could get, like when after his parents died. He and Bolin had had each other back then to deal with the pain, but Mako had had no-one during that horrible period before he’d come to Zaofu. He would do anything to protect that security of having a friend, now that he knew what it was like to lose it.

_Four days later_

“Uggghhh!” Ling groaned, slowly pushing himself off the seat. It was mid-afternoon, and they’d just arrived in Ba Sing Sae. The others slowly trudged after him off the train, hauling their luggage behind them. The detour accumulated to about a day and a half extra, due to the fact that the last stretch that Mo had planned was closed off for some reason. All conversation had dried up after day two, and it had been mainly card games after that. Even Ling was tired of the constant socialising. Not talking was awkward at first, but everyone got used to it eventually.

Mako knew a lot more than before about the others, he’d heard every story there was to tell on that train. There wasn’t much more to know about Ling, Nel and Mos' backstories, but Mako knew about everything, and he meant everything, there was to know about them. Their pets' names growing up, their favourite book, what shirt they wore on a good day, etc.

Mako generally hadn’t minded talking about himself, but the one time he got really uncomfortable was when the topic switched to women. He knew that it would’ve a hilarious story for Bolin to tell about how Asami and Korra had got together after dating him, and he didn’t mind them making fun of him for turning two women the other way; it was just what his mind turned to after those events.

He had thought so much about Kalla, and was incredibly disgusted with himself. He had been able to keep himself distracted while in Zaofu, but now Mako felt like jumping into a pit of snakes wouldn’t be justice enough. He was very angry at himself, but didn’t let it get the better of him; he couldn’t do anything while sitting in a train. He would help Bolin first of all, then determine what his plans would be from there. There was one thing he knew that he’d have to do first though, before he could hold Kalla again.

Mako would have to get Korra’s permission. Which could be fatal in the process of trying, but there was no avoiding about it. Korra was the rightful guardian of Kalla, and therefore, she would decide. That was why Mako ruled out looking for Korra’s parents, who he guessed were still looking after Kalla. He probably wouldn’t be able to find them anyway, they had long since left the South Pole after being forced out by the public.

All five of them showed their passports, Mako’s catching a breath from the clerk, and they made their way out of the wall into the Lower Ring. Mako held his nose automatically, remembering how awful it had spelt when he first visited, but was surprised to see Ling, Bolin, Nel and Mo all doing perfectly fine.

“Guys, cover you noses,” Mako urged. “The smell is horrible for the first few minutes before you gradually get used to it!”

“What smell?” Mo asked, taking in a deep sniff. Mako waited for a sudden revolted reaction, but was surprised when Mo looked back at him, confused.

“It doesn’t smell great,” Nel said, “but I didn’t notice anything until you brought it up. What’s the big deal?” Mako slowly took his fingers off his nose, and sniffed suspiciously. But he got a pleasant surprise when the air was clear. It was almost as good as Zaofu.

“We cleaned up the Lower Ring when we came here with… you-know-who,” Bolin said, not wanting to say Kuivera's name again. “All the slums have been built up into decent living conditions, she made sure of that. I know that a lot of what we did was really bad, but we also brought a lot of good. We're going to be living in one of the new buildings, aren’t we, Mo?”

“Yep,” Mo confirmed. “We just need to head to the agent who’s been reserving the apartment for us. I’ve got an up-to-date map too, we should be able to find it relatively easily.” Mo whipped out said map, and started looking at it. He spent a few minutes pinpointing exactly the route they needed to go, and then they were off.

Mako was amazed at the state of the Lower Ring now. While it held nothing to the Middle Ring, and was still extremely crowded, it was much nicer in general. The houses and shops, although humble, gave off a tidy vibe. As Bolin explained on the way, planning permission had been clamped down on, and now it was much harder to just build on top of any old building. The higher storeys didn’t lean over the path, resulting in much less of a claustrophobic feeling. Mako had never had any problems with being in small, tight spaces, but it was much nicer to have more room. There were still a fair amount of derelict buildings, but Kuivera had clearly made a massive improvement.

“Here we are!” Mo exclaimed, as they stopped in front of a seven-storey building. It looked quite fresh as well. The granite it had been built out of gleamed in the sun.

“It looks new,” Mako commented, looking at the name just above the entrance. It read – **BA SING SAE PROPERTY INVESTMENT LTD** – in huge letters.

“This was kinda the group that profited most off of the reform,” Bolin mentioned. “They were chosen because of their loyalty to the Earth Empire to have an eighth of rentable accommodation in the Lower Ring. Although they were actually just luckily to get in there early. They make massive amounts of cash, even though they’ve got some of the lowest offers in the city.”

“How did you manage to keep an apartment reserved then?” Mako asked.

“The woman who we got in contact with has a son who can lavabend,” Mo told Mako. “She’s a bit obsessive with him knowing how to control it, so we promised her that we’d reserve a spot for him if the project gets going. We’re still paying full rent, so it’s a win-win for her.”

“How did you get in touch with her in the first place, now that you mention it?” Ling asked. “I’d never really given it too much time before, but it seems awful convenient, now that I think of it.”

“The woman wanted me to teach her son back when I was working the Earth Empire,” Bolin said, “but I had to refuse. I kept her card anyway, and it worked out neatly enough.”

“We can talk about it later,” Nel said, not hiding how impatient he was now that they had finally arrived. “We need to get settled before it gets dark.”

“Relax,” Bolin told Nel, walking towards the entrance. “The estate's only a twenty-minute walk from here, we've got plenty of time.” The others followed him in, their cases rattling along the ground.

When they got into the lobby, Bolin told the rest of them to wait there. He headed up the stairs, and a few minutes later, he came down with the woman he’d been talking about. She was dressed very smartly, and shook everyone’s hands when Bolin introduced them.

“My name is Meng,” she introduced herself, when she was done shaking hands. “I assume that you’re all the other instructors that Bolin came with?”

“Yep,” Nel said. “Now, I hate to get down to business, but can we go? I’m sorry, but it’s been a long journey, and we're all wrecked. It’s winter, so we don’t want to stay out too late.”

“Of course,” Meng said, then frowned, counting the number of people. “I’m sorry, but I thought that you requested an apartment for four people. I didn’t realise there was a fifth person.”

“I'm not going to be staying for as long,” Mako explained, and her courteous smile returned. “Right this way, if you may.” She proceeded to walk out of the doors into the dim November sunlight. The group followed.

Seventeen minutes later, they were all shown to their apartment on a thirteen-storey building. On the way, Meng had asked for proof that Ling, Nel and Mo could lavabend so that she knew she wasn’t being duped, and was thrilled to see they were genuine.

She gave them four sets of keys after she was paid for one week, promising to get a fifth set cut for Mako. There were two bedrooms with a pair of single beds each, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room with a radio built in.

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” Mako vouched, as soon as it became apparent that someone would have to get the short end of the stick in terms of sleeping arrangements.

“We’ll swap every night,” Ling offered. “One different person sleeps on the couch every night, some of us will have to do it twice a week.”

“It’s fine,” Mako reassured Ling. “I’ve slept rough plenty of times before, it’s a luxury to have something as comfortable as a couch.”

“Nonsense,” Ling rebuffed Mako. “You’re going to be just as essential to this project getting up off the ground as anyone. I insist.”

“I honestly don’t mind,” Mako reiterated.

“Well I do,” Ling countered. “If you don’t care that much, then it’s no bother for you to agree with me. Any objections?” Everyone else stayed quiet, and it was settled.

“When can we go to the council then?” Nel asked. “It’ll probably take a while for the appeal to get through.”

“I’ve got Wu's number,” Mako said. “I’ll ask him if he wants to come out for lunch to catch up, then I’ll bring it up to him there. Actually Nel, I’ve got something to ask you.”

“What is it?” Nel asked.

“You’re really good at phrasing your words,” Mako complemented. “I think it’d be essential to have someone who’s good at talking and one of the founders of the course to be representing us. I’ll give the project legitimacy because I worked for Wu and I’m supporting it, but it would be weak coming from only a firebender.”

“I’m not sure,” Nel said, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m not great around new people.”

“I was always keen on putting forward our case, and I’ll come in for the long explanations,” Ling came in. “I’d be really happy to help you.” He turned to Mako, looking for approval.

“That’s perfect!” Mako declared. “You two are passionate about it, so I think it’ll be a brilliant combination.” Nel mused over this, then nodded his head.

“It’s all coming together!” Bolin exclaimed, buzzing with anticipation, and unpacked a piece of paper while taking out a pen. “I’m gonna write to Opal right now!”

“We’ve been in here for one minute,” Ling teased. “Is it really so urgent?”

Mako just kicked back on the couch while Bolin and Ling bantered, and relaxed. He would need all his energy and patience for whenever he was going to meet Wu.

**NB:**

**If you want an example of the corporation tax issue, look up Apple in Ireland. They have really low corporation tax, so Apple set up their European Headquarters there. When the EU found out about this, they told Apple that they owed 13 billion euro to Ireland in taxes. And Ireland had debt to the EU, exceeding 13 billion, so it was pretty much a big payday for the rest of the EU**


	33. Putting Forward The Case

Mako rapped his fingers on the glass table inside the tea restaurant _The Napolitano_. He was in the Middle Ring, having been in Ba Sing Sae for four days by now. He was waiting for Wu, but Wu was at least fifteen minutes late. Mako looked out the window to the cold November evening, and sighed, about get up to check if Wu was near. Luckily for him though, Wu strode through the doors that very instant, two Dai Li agents flanking him on either side.

He spotted Mako in the corner instantly, and practically hopped over to his former bodyguard, squealing in delight. Mako braced himself, and put on his best smile. Wu wrapped Mako in hug for a few seconds, before speaking.

“Mako!” Wu exclaimed, not letting go. “My old friend! How’s it going, buddy?”

“Not too bad,” Mako answered, pushing Wu off himself. “You?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe,” Wu started, and Mako kept looking at Wu’s face to show a bit of attention, as Wu started going over what had happened in the last month. It was painfully boring, but it’d look really shallow if Mako asked for help right off the bat. So he listened, until a waiter came up to them, asking for their orders.

“I'll have a sprinkling of bloe-dust, on tea with leaves from the Fong Tree and a teaspoon amount of white sugar, thank you,” Wu ordered immediately.

 _He clearly hasn’t changed much_ , Mako thought. Mako just ordered plain tea.

“Of course, Mayor, sir,” the waiter said, and bowed before going back to the kitchen.

“Mayor?” Mako repeated. “I thought you’d gotten rid of the monarchy.”

“Ah, yes,” Wu said, slowing down a bit. “You see, my advisors told me that ripping away all the power at once wouldn’t be great for stability. So, to counter that, we’ll slowly lease it out over time. There’s a Prime Minister of Ba Sing Sae, and then there’s me, the Mayor of Ba Sing Sae. But guess what?”

“What?” Mako played along, and Wu leaned right next to Mako’s ear.

“I don’t have to do any work!” Wu whispered gleefully. “All my advisors are more than happy to divide it among themselves! I let them tell me what to say at meetings nowadays, it’s so boring otherwise. By the way, the Mayor thing only applies to Ba Sing Sae, the rest of the Earth Kingdom was never too connected with the monarchy anyway.”

Mako wanted to slap himself on the forehead, but resisted the urge. Instead, he just vented all his frustration out in one exhalation through his nose.

 _He’s a puppet_ , Mako thought, but didn’t dare say that in front of the Dai Li. So he just continued the conversation, trying to agree with Wu as much as possible on whatever dilemma the Mayor of Ba Sing Sae had in his personal life. Mako, as much as he hated to be using Wu, figured he was due at least one big favour in return for all the shopping trips alone.

“So, anyway, what brings you to Ba Sing Sae in the first place?” Wu asked. “It’s not like you just decided to come on a whim, especially after all those times you rejected coming here to guard me.”

“Yeah… sorry about that,” Mako said, not sure how to respond to that, but thankfully, Wu didn’t mean it in a bad way.

“Oh, it’s fine, it’s just that you’re much more fun to talk to than all of the other bodyguards I’ve been with,” Wu brushed it off. “You guys are always so quiet!”

“I came here because Bolin has a project that he’s doing here,” Mako revealed, deciding that now was as good a time as any. He quickly glanced over to the Dai Li agents, but they just kept on looking the other way for any potential threats.

“Can I help?” Wu offered. “Bolin and I were great friends.”

“You probably could, actually,” Mako said nonchalantly, but inside he was silently rejoicing at the offer. “What’s the general opinion on lavabending, do you know?”

“Lavabending?” Wu repeated, and thought about the question for a second. “I suppose that people wouldn’t really be fond of. Because it’s so crowded in a lot of Ba Sing Sae, people don’t really do it due to obvious dangers.”

“Isn’t it illegal?” Mako prodded.

“Illegal… Yeah, actually you’re right!” Wu exclaimed, sitting up. “That’s why people generally don’t do it! I don’t remember any major incidents to do with lavabending since, well, in my entire life.”

“See, Bolin is a lavabender, as you know, and he thinks that there’s a lot of potential for the general public of Ba Sing Sae when it comes to lavabending, as there are millions upon millions of people that live here,” Mako told Wu. “But the main problem is that it’s illegal, and, I’m gonna be honest, I came here because we need your help in decriminalising it.”

“Hmm,” Wu muttered, going quiet for the first time in nearly an hour. “I mean, how big do you intend it to be?”

“There’ll only be four instructors, including Bolin,” Mako said immediately. “And in their previous classes in Zaofu, they only had three or four people each, mainly.”

“Mako,” Wu started, “to be honest, you’ll probably meet a lot of opposition from the council. These guys never budge on anything! Due to our history together, I’d be willing to lend my support as a favour, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

“That’s brilliant!” Mako exclaimed, jumping out of his seat. “Yes, thank you so much, that’s all we need. When can we get a hearing?”

“The usual waiting list is a few months-” Wu said, but panicked at the look of dismay that suddenly appeared on Mako’s face, “-but the next meeting is tomorrow, and I’m obliged to come! You guys can come with me tomorrow as my guests, I promise!”

“Yes!” Mako nearly shouted, grabbing Wu’s shoulders, then saw the look he got from one of the Dai Li, and cleared his throat audibly. “Yeah, that’d be unreal,” he said quietly, letting go.

“Perfect!” Wu agreed. Both of them had finished their tea long ago. “How about we elaborate on it while we go to the spa, huh? Tough guys like you need to freshen up once in a while.”

“Mayor, sir,” one of the Dai Li interrupted, coming up to them. “Are you sure it’s ok to be heading to a spa with someone who you haven’t met for over a year?”

“Mako and I go way back, isn’t that right, buddy?” Wu said, putting an arm around Mako’s shoulder as he stood up, like they were lifelong friends.

“The spa… Yeah, that, that sounds great,” Mako agreed, but in truth he was dreading it. Spa days had been some of the worst back when he was guarding Wu, but now he’d have to be completely friendly as well. He took a deep breath, and started walking with Wu.

* * *

  
“Ready, guys?” Mako asked Ling and Nel. They both nodded nervously, the occasion getting to them slightly. All three had rented smart clothes, and were currently sitting outside the debating hall for the council. One Dai Li agent stood in front of them the entire time, never moving. Wu had already been in there for two hours, as they were given a time slot to put forward their case.

“I’m not sure if I can do it!” Nel blurted out, sweating in his already-tight suit.

“Look, Nel,” Ling said, putting a hand on the huge man’s shoulder. “It’s natural that you're excited. We all are. This is the day we’ve been working towards for a while now, don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t think I should be giving a speech in there,” Nel said. “I’m not used to addressing groups of more than six people, there’s supposed to be ninety in there.”

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Ling asked. “You’re the most powerful lavabender I know, if anyone in this city had to fight you one-on-one, I know for a fact that they’d be shitting themselves.”

“This isn’t a fight!” Nel argued.

“Nel, you’re one of the smartest people I know,” Ling told the huge man. “We’ve got a dream, and there’s nothing that can stop us from winning over the people on the other side of the door, if we keep that in perspective.” It sounded cheesy, but Nel actually calmed down, and smiled at Ling.

“Thanks,” he said.

“I’m gonna be the one thanking you after we're heading back to tell Mo and Bolin the good news,” Ling replied, and Nel laughed, relaxing.

Mako was amazed at how good Ling was at giving advice. He was a natural at it, this was the third time in the space of two hours that he’d reassured Nel that everything was going to be fine. Nel was pretty difficult to persuade in general when he had something set in his mind, but Ling barely thought twice about it.

“You’re really good at talking to people,” Mako complemented. “You should be a therapist.”

“Thanks,” Ling laughed. “I’m fairly jittery as well, but I learnt long ago that your mind is your own worst enemy. Life isn’t always easy, but if you can certainly make it harder on yourself. I accept that I’m excited, but I know I won’t mess up.” He projected an air of confidence.

“How?” Mako asked. “How are you so sure of yourself?”

“This is the day I’ve been waiting for!” Ling told Mako enthusiastically. “Why would I be unhappy?”

“I guess so,” Mako said. Still though, how is he so positive? he repeated in his mind.

Ling was secretly a wreck as well, but he knew that moods were infectious. They would all support each other if they kept the right mind-set.

“You may put forward your proposal,” a man popping his head through the door said, and Ling shot up. The others followed his lead and made their way into the debating hall.

The hall was a grand, circular room, with nearly a hundred seats circling around the centre. In the centre, there was a podium with ten seats, and a detachable microphone in between them. There was a man facing the door at the far end as Mako walked in with a hammer on his own special chair, of whom Mako assumed was the person who shouted 'order', if it ever got too loud. Above that man, there were two different boxes, one with Wu, who hadn’t noticed Mako, Ling and Nel coming. He had five advisors sitting beside him, actually paying attention, and leaning forward to get a good look at these newcomers.

Beside Wu’s box, there was a man resting his elbows on the railing, two of his advisors sitting silently behind him. He had a bald patch and greyish hair, but he gave off a menacing vibe. He stared at Mako, reading everything he could from Mako’s appearance. It took all of Mako’s willpower not to shoot back a dirty look. Instead, he just briefly looked him as he took in the room. Above his box, it read in capital letters – PRIME MINISTER.

 _Compose yourself_ , Mako urged himself mentally as he made sure he had all his papers in order. He did, as he’d spent an hour constantly rechecking them in the hallway. He heard Nel gulp as him and Ling sat down. Mako was the one who was to open their case.

“Good evening, good politicians of Ba Sing Sae,” he greeted into the microphone. “My name is Mako, and these fine men with me here today are called Ling and Nel. I am extremely grateful for the time you have graciously allowed us.” In his mind, he was cringing, but he knew the best way to please people who thought highly of themselves. Judging by their outfits, he wasn’t wrong.

“What do you want to bring before the council?” the person with the hammer – the mediator? – asked.

“These men have come to Ba Sing Sae with the ability to lavabend,” Mako started, “and they would like to start a course for lavabenders, so that everyone with the power can learn to properly control their ability. The only problem is that it is currently illegal here in Ba Sing Sae to lavabend, so we are asking you to decriminalise it so they can spread their teachings.”

“And why should the council do that?” the mediator asked. “Why should we allow the practice of a completely unnecessary form of bending when there is no harm leaving it be?”

“That is where Ling comes in, good sir,” Mako said. “He is deeply passionate about lavabending, being a lavabender himself, and has many strong arguments that I would ask you to consider.” Mako turned to Ling and nodded. Ling stood up curtly and walked up to Mako. He took the microphone, inhaled deeply, and began to speak:

“When I was growing up, I accidentally realised that I could use lavabending at eight years old,” Ling started. “At first, I thought it was awesome, having this power that no-one else, or at least very few people, had. But I soon realised that wasn’t the case.

“Because lavabending was, and is, the ugly duckling of earthbending, I found a lot of people going out of their way to avoid me. I grew up in Zaofu, where the vast majority of earthbenders can metal-“

“ZAOFU?!” a random man in the audience spoke up. “That’s in the East, very close to Omashu! They probably intend to spring an attack on Ba Sing Sae as soon as we leave our guard down!”

“It’s exactly people like you who are making the situation worse!” a man on the other side of the room spoke up, pointing a finger at the first man to interrupt. “We’d have resolved the tensions peacefully by now if you Conservatives didn’t have to butt in every time!”

“You Liberals are going to let Omashu walk all over us as they please, because you’re all too afraid to take decisive action!” the first man retorted.

Soon, insults and arguments were flying across the room. It seemed that one side was where the Liberals sat, and one where the Conservatives sat. Wu remained uninterested the entire time, sitting back and rocking on his chair.

The only person who stayed calm was the Prime Minister. He didn’t engage in the constant berating, but instead, whispered with his advisors. The mediator started to bang his hammer repeatedly, but only two thirds of the arguments stopped. Some of the councillors were ready to climb over to the other side and started brawling.

“QUIET!” the Prime Minister shouted, and almost immediately, the backchat stopped. Ling, who had been standing uncomfortably, widened his eyes. This man clearly had earned authority in this room.

“But, Prime Minister-“ one Conservative started.

“We will hear out these visitors from Zaofu! I am interested in what they have to say.” With that declaration, any form of protest stopped. Ling cleared his throat and started to continue:

“Thank you, sir,” Ling said. “As I was saying, there is a huge prejudice in Zaofu, a relatively new city, against lavabending, and I know that there is the same to some degree here. As a result of that, many lavabenders have been outcast from society and resorted to crime. When my friends and I were running a class in Zaofu, we eventually had over a hundred students. But when the law decided to run background checks on all of us, which was completely fine, we lost well over two thirds of our students. We don’t view this as a reflection on the individuals though, rather the surroundings they grew up with.”

“An objection,” a man on the Conservative side announced, raising his hand. Ling allowed him with a nod.

“Are you suggesting that the way to get rid of criminals is to remove the punishment of the crime altogether?” he asked. “I’d hope not.”

“Of course not, sir,” Ling answered. “What I want to say is that lavabenders are often marginalised because of their ability, and that if we were allowed to run these classes, it would go a long way in making ordinary people who were born with this subset of bending feel accepted.”

“So what if we legalise it for the sake of an argument,” one of the Liberals spoke up. “Do we release everyone who has been detained over the years still in prison?”

“We ran into a similar problem in Zaofu,” Ling replied. “And the answer is no.” That brought a lot of curious looks from around the hall, including Mako. “We did a lot of research into convictions and accusations around lavabending in Ba Sing Sae, and we couldn’t find anyone who had been purely arrested for the sole act of lavabending. Of course, we could only work off what we had, which wasn’t much, but every case we found included another crime like vandalism, murder or assault. The people who we found to be lavabenders in prison are guilty of other charges too. I can’t speak for all lavabenders in prison, because that’s only a select few, but you get the idea.”

“There are bound to be thousands of applicants if your idea does get off the ground,” one politician stated. “How do you suppose we filter the good ones?”

“We had a very good system back in Zaofu,” Ling answered. “Anyone who wants to attend will have to undergo a series of background checks. That’ll turn away anyone with a record immediately, and we have no problem being supervised by the law. There are many finer details that we would be happy to get into if you’re all interested.”

“There are still people who have evaded the law,” a Liberal said. “So that process of elimination would have holes in it immediately.”

“Miss, I do understand where you’re coming from,” Ling started, “but it’s impossible to know if someone with a clean record has committed any crimes. It would be the same as asking anyone in this very room. I can only go off the fact that you have no criminal record to decide whether or not you’re worthy of debating in this hall.” With those last two sentences, both parties sent glares across the room. It was evident that they didn’t trust each other, anyway.

The appeal went on for another hour. Both parties asked plenty of reasonable questions, which were all answered. Ling got a little worn out after a while, and Nel took over. He wasn’t as good as Ling at elaborating on his answers, but he grew into it more and more, until he was countering every question with undeniable logic. The only time Mako spoke to the hall again was when their credibility was questioned, to which Mako had revealed his work guarding Wu. It was back-and-forth for most of the time, until the very end;

“Your slot is about to run out,” the mediator stated. “Are there any more pressing points you feel that you need to mention?”

Nel looked back to Ling and Mako, but they both just shrugged, having gone through all their prepared notes. “No,” he answered.

“We will put it to a vote,” the mediator declared. “Everyone against decriminalising lavabending, raise your hand. Everyone in favour of decriminalising lavabending, raise your hand when I tell you to do so.”

Mako shifted nervously in his seat. This was it. Now, they would find out if all their efforts had been in vain or not.

“All those against legalising lavabending, raise your hand.”

A large number of hands from the Conservative side, but also a fair few from the Liberals too, went up. The mediator counted them all by asking for them to call out their name if they had their hand up, then slowly wrote them down on a piece of paper. It took a few minutes, until the mediator repeated the process with whoever was in favour of legalising it. It looked significantly smaller than those against it, worryingly. The mediator checked, then rechecked his paper. When he was done, he cleared his throat.

“After carefully calculating the results of the vote and checking them, there is a clear majority of 47 to 36 against legalising lavabending.”

Mako, Ling and Nels' hearts all sunk. Ling let out a sigh of frustration, and Nel's head dropped. Mako ran his hands through his short hair, wondering where they had gone wrong.

 _We shouldn’t have mentioned we were from Zaofu_ , he chastised mentally, although he knew that realistically, they never would’ve been able to avoid bringing it up.

“This appeal is dismissed!” the mediator declared, and brought his hand up to hit his hammer. All three of them watched solemnly as he brought it down.

“Wait,” the Prime Minister called out, and the mediator just about stopped his hammer in time. Mako, Ling and Nel all perked up simultaneously.

“I didn’t vote there, because I was undecided,” he stated, every pair of eyes on him. “But I do have one question, or rather, condition, which I think could change the outcome. If you don’t mind, men?”

“Of course, what is it?” Nel asked enthusiastically, but Mako only tensed up. This man had silently observed during the fat majority of the appeal, only whispering a few words to his advisors from time to time. It seemed very odd that he wanted to ask a question now.

“We would allow you to go about with your course, and teach lavabending after various finer points have been discussed,” he started. “But if a war breaks out with Omashu, or any other state, for that matter, you will all be conscripted and teach lavabending as part of a regiment in our army.”

“Join… the army?” Nel asked, unsure how to react.

“Precisely,” the Prime Minister confirmed. Mako sat back, not having expected such a condition. He brooded over it;

On one hand, war probably wasn’t going to break out, and it would help make Bolin’s fantasy a reality. On the other hand, by agreeing to this, they’d be forcing themselves into a corner. A general murmur started going around the room, especially in the Conservative party.

The snake, Mako thought, referring to the Prime Minister. I bet he had that question planned for a while.

“Absolutely not!” Ling shouted, standing up, his friendly demeanour gone. “We're not going to fight your war for you!”

“Ling, let me handle this,” Nel whispered, seemingly a lot calmer than both Mako and Ling combined.

“You’re not going to accept that, are you!?” Ling challenged Nel, pointing in the direction of the Prime Minister. “We’re not his puppets!”

“I know that,” Nel whispered back. “But I had a feeling that this might come up. I’m never going to fight a war using lavabending, that’ll only make things worse for lavabenders. We’ll just be seen as tools for war for generations to come otherwise. I've got a response for this.” Ling wanted to argue, but accepted what his friend had to say, and sat back down.

“Is that a no?” the Prime Minister asked, gazing at Nel. Nel, however, didn’t back down. He returned the stare equally.

“I thought this question would come up,” Nel announced. “But the driving force behind our decision to teach lavabenders how to control their power was not for military use. We want to change the stigma around lavabending, and we don’t think helping fight a potential war, practically as mercenaries, would do that. So we will have to decline that condition, unfortunately.”

“That’s quite a shame,” the Prime Minister said. “But let me alter the terms of the condition. There will be many lavabenders that will be disqualified due to their criminal records when they show up. But perhaps we can offer an alternative. It won’t be forcing anything on anyone, and conscription won’t be a part of it.”

Mako bit his lower lip in anger. Someone as intimating as this man didn’t give off the vibe of someone who just gave in at the first sign of resistance.

“We're listening,” Nel said. If he’d been told him two hours ago that he would be arguing against the government for legalising lavabending, he would’ve laughed. But he was in no joking mood right now.

“Not all crimes are equally bad,” the Prime Minister began. “And it could be quite unfortunate for some that a petty crime they had committed be held in the same light as something like assault, or rape. Therefore, I propose that if an applicant’s record isn’t deemed too serious, then we let them train on one condition.”

This doesn’t sound good, Mako thought.

“This condition,” the Prime Minister continued, “would make them be obliged to join the army if war were to break out, to prove their worth as a good citizen of Ba Sing Sae. What do you think?”

Shouts of approval met the Prime Minister's suggestion, but Nel, Mako and Ling all went quiet. They thought about it deeply themselves for a minute, before turning to each other.

“What do you guys think?” Nel asked. “If it’s a completely voluntary choice which is made obvious to them, then I think it’s our best shot. Listen to all the people shouting behind us. If we get a political party backing us, then we're guaranteed success. Guaranteed!”

“I don’t know,” Ling responded, frowning. “If they were to supposedly kill someone in a potential war, then that person’s blood would be on our hands!”

“If somebody buys a knife off of you, is it your fault that they stab someone with it later?” Nel posed the question, but it was rhetorical. “Of course not! This is a golden opportunity, this is what we’ve been waiting for!” Ling and Nel bickered for a little bit more, before Ling looked at Mako.

“Well, what do you think?” Ling asked. “You haven’t said anything yet.”

“I’m not a lavabender,” Mako said. “I don’t have the right to have an opinion on this.”

“Bollocks!” Ling protested. “You’re a part of this just as much as any one of us. We couldn’t have made it in here without you, and you’re literally in the huddle right now! So, we want your opinion, Mako. It does matter.” Nel backed Ling up on this with a simple nod.

“We should ask them to postpone the hearing,” Mako suggested after a moment of hesitation. “We need Bolin and Mo to have a say in this as well.”

“That’s a good idea,” Nel agreed. He turned and went back to the microphone. “I’m sorry to be requesting this of you, but could we please postpone the hearing? We need to consult the other two co-founders on this matter.”

“They should have come with you then,” the Prime Minister countered. “We’ve already voted, it’s only my generosity that has thrown you a lifeline.” Nel looked back to the others. Ling shook his head, but Mako stayed still, thinking hard about it.

They wouldn’t get a better opportunity, he was sure of that. He thought it was a very sticky term, but in truth, he agreed wholeheartedly with Nel. He didn’t know if they would have any more success with the other states. He only had credit here in Ba Sing Sae, and he would do anything to help realise Bolin’s dream.

He nodded at Nel, resulting in Ling’s shoulders sagging, but Ling didn’t say anything. Mako marched up to the microphone, and gently took it from Nel. He had one thing he wanted to negotiate with the Prime Minister still.

“We’ve voted to accept your term,” Mako started. “But there’s one rule in it that could turn out to be quite problematic; how long does the conscription still hold even after a lavabender who has agreed to the condition has left the class, for whatever reason?”

“Ten years,” the Prime Minister informed Mako calmly. “The standard.”

“That’s not going to work,” Mako denied. “Make it two years.” Laughter erupted around the hall at that statement. The Prime Minister barely chuckled though, and resumed his emotionless look from before a moment later.

“Ten years,” the Prime Minister repeated.

“That’s not going to work!” Mako replied, and the advisors to the Prime Minister snarled. They clearly didn’t like his word being questioned.

“Seven years,” the Prime Minister relented after a moment of consideration. “I’m not going to go any lower. Take it or leave it.”

“Four years,” Mako haggled, but then turned around, surprised, to see Nel giving him a look of desperation while shaking his shoulder.

“Mako,” he whispered. “Take his offer. We’re in no position to barter. Please Mako, if you really care about the project, just accept it!” Mako was about to argue, then remembered his place. 

He was a firebender. He’d come here to help Bolin. He couldn’t dare trample on Bolin’s idea, especially when a lavabender was arguing against him. He sighed, defeated.

“Fine,” Mako consigned. “We graciously accept your offer.”

“Good,” the Prime Minister responded, satisfied. “Any objections?” The hall went quiet. “Excellent. May we please have another vote?”

“Very well,” the mediator allowed. “All those in favour of decriminalising lavabending, please raise your hand.” Nearly the entire Conservative side raised their hands, bar one or two. Most who’d votes for the lavabenders in the first vote on the Liberal side raised their hand too. The Prime Minister also raised his hand.

A clear majority voted in favour for Ling, Mako and Nel. The ones who were still against it were outnumbered 1 to 4 now. The mediator didn’t bother counting individually, and raised her hammer.

The _whack_ of the hammer off the wood echoed throughout the hall, but as the mediator continued to speak, none of Mako, Nel or Ling started celebrating. They all just sat there, wondering if they had just done something terribly wrong.

“The change will not be instated until the finer details have been fleshed out,” the mediator announced. “We will see you again in two weeks to organise everything. Nothing too small is to be left out, remember that. The secretary will give you your official paper, stating the appointment. You are dismissed.”

Mako thanked the hall, although there was no real conviction behind it, and followed his two friends out the hall. All three of them were wordless until the door had shut. They looked at each other, grimacing.

“Let’s go tell Bolin and Mo the good news,” Ling grumbled sarcastically.

“It’s a voluntary decision,” Nel argued, trying to lift the mood. “That means everyone who is bound by the condition will know what they’re doing. We should be happy, guys!”

“Sure,” Mako replied. He agreed with Nel in his head, but he couldn’t help but feel a bottomless pit in his stomach. He tried to ignore it, but it wouldn’t go away.

 _Everything will be fine_ , he tried to reassure himself.


	34. Lightning

“Let me hear it roar!”

Korra raised a 50x50 wall of fire over two hundred metres away. It was four metres thick, and illuminated the island, dusk just having passed. Korra ground her teeth together in concentration and put more and more power into it. She saw it blaze higher than she had ever managed before. She was getting visibly better with each passing day. Korra held it there wordlessly as Azula counted down from two minutes in her head, which could be as long as she felt like, given how she felt how hard Korra had trained. When she finally allowed Korra to drop it, Korra nearly fell down, hands on her knees, panting hard.

According to Azula, Korra had been on the island for just over a month and a half now. Every day, she had trained for more or less six hours, no matter the weather. Korra had reported about a dozen cramps and aches, all genuine, but Azula didn’t listen to her once. Unless she was physically incapable of moving her limbs, Korra would train. Korra spent her free time resting, which was all she really could do, to be fair. Her enthusiasm had long been shot, and now she dreaded getting out of bed for training.

She didn’t complain though. She felt much fitter than she had in her entire life. Although she had been much stronger physically before she was poisoned, Korra could maintain her fire for a lot, lot longer now. She had spent her second and third week solely on running, swimming and rock climbing. Azula recognised that she wasn’t in nearly as good enough shape as required, and put Korra through the mill. She was very smart about it though, as soon as Korra’s effort levels began to drop with the cardio, they went straight back to firebending.

Korra reckoned that if she was given a few days to properly let her muscles rest, she could create a wall of fire twice as big as the one she’d just made, but Azula never once considered it.

 _Why not?_ Korra had asked _. I’m training way harder and more intensely than anyone else on the island, can I just get a break like one of them, please?_

 _No!_ Azula had repeated _. You’re the Avatar, someone with god-like potential like yourself doesn’t need rest! Quit whining and get back to training! I specifically removed a large number of amenities from this island because people were getting too comfortable, and you’re no exception!_

Azula was very strict, yes. But she wasn’t lying when she told Korra how great a teacher she was. Azula had taught Korra the old forms for firebending, the ones which were much more fluid and precise than what Korra had learnt. Both versions crossed over a lot, of course, but where Korra’s close range firebending had relied on short, quick spurts of energy, Azula's medium to long range techniques relied on longer releases of power. Most of the firebenders on this island, even those who couldn’t even produce blue flame, were so powerful that a close range fight would be very bad for both fighters, as they’d likely blow each other up with their power.

“You've been progressing at a rapid rate,” Azula told Korra. “I corrected your form, and you proved that if you keep it up, you can become a master combustion bender with the right amount of dedication.”

Korra had learnt the proper forms for firebending, and then it had all been raising walls of fire from there on out. She didn’t look at the fire any more, as it hurt her eyes. She just looked down at the ground, which was much kinder on her pupils. She’d look up for glimpses to see how she was doing, but apart that, not too much. Korra put her hands on the back of her head, and stood up straight.

“Thank you,” she said, her breathing more controlled. “Azula, can I ask you a question?”

Over the six weeks, Korra had slowly started to break down the wall that Azula stubbornly kept up. Azula didn’t chastise Korra too much now when she forgot to add 'Master' before, which was maybe a sign of her opening up a tiny bit, but Korra didn’t dare mention it.

“Go ahead,” Azula allowed, sitting down in her chair. “You’ve shown an exponential rate of improvement every day, so I think you’re due one or two.”

“When can I move on to creating lightning?” Korra asked, and Azula nearly broke her constant scowl into a smirk. Nearly, though, it was only a twitch.

“I was beginning to wonder when you would ask,” she revealed. “How ready do you think you are?”

“I’ve mastered the wall of fire technique down to the bone,” Korra stated. “And I don’t think that there’s anything left to elaborate on, unless you’re hiding something from me.” Korra got on one knee and bowed. “So, please, Master Azula, teach me how to create a bolt of lightning. I’ve mastered everything you’ve told me to learn so far. I think I’m ready to make the next step.”

“Very well,” Azula declared, and Korra allowed herself a huge grin, as Azula couldn’t see her face. “But I have one test to see if you have truly mastered the wall of fire technique.” Korra’s heart sank. Azula’s 'tests' were' usually miserable, and left her crawling home to bed.

“What is it?” Korra asked, not willing to back down before she had even started.

“I want you to create the most powerful, strongest, hottest wall of fire you are capable of erecting,” Azula ordered. “We'll move on to creating lightning after that, but if the wall is too weak, I’ll hold you back. You’ll have to hold it for a lot longer too, about twice as long as usual. I know that you preserved energy on all your previous walls, so this shouldn’t be an issue.”

Korra desperately wanted to moan, but she bit her tongue. Instead, she just simply turned away and faced the direction erecting her walls from previously, and inhaled deeply through the nose. She planted her feet shoulder-width apart, controlling every breath. She mustered her remaining energy for the next two minutes, and then unleashed it all up towards the sky.

“AGGGHHH!” she shouted as 100 metre wall of fire soared up elegantly. Korra stayed firm, and focused harder on the blaze. The wall went from elegant to ferocious, making Korra sweat even more. She was drenched in her own body liquid, but ignored it. The water-tribe native struggled to keep it up after what felt like two minutes had passed, and felt Raava rising up within her. It was a huge temptation, just to let the Avatar State come out and control this fire with a breeze. Korra refused to, though, and had to shove Raava back down as well keep the wall up.

The seconds trudged by. Korra’s knees began to tremble. Her throat was itching to vomit out the pasta she had in her stomach. All the aches and pains which she’d learnt to ignore flared back up. She’d secretly treated them with healing water on numerous occasions before, but they always came back. Dots popped up across her vision. She threatened to buckle over, but she came back to the one source of motivation that had dragged her through the training so far: Kalla.

 _If I, as the Avatar, can’t master firebending to its greatest extent, then how can I hope to protect her against someone who can combustion bend_? Korra thought.

It was flawed logic, given that she had three other elements in her arsenal to fight with as well, but it was this flawed logic that kept her burning thighs from giving in. After what felt like an hour, but in reality was only four minutes, Azula finally spoke;

“You can stop now,” she told Korra.

Korra collapsed instantly onto the ground. She retched several times for the next few minutes, the pasta she’d had an hour ago begging to escape. She tried to push herself up to look presentable to Azula, but her arms failed her. She face-planted into the hard rock, and stayed there, unable to move. Korra tilted her head sideways to try to start an apology to Azula for falling over, but she only managed to look at her master’s feet before she blacked out.

* * *

  
Korra’s eyes slowly squirmed open. She looked up at the night sky, but for some reason, couldn’t see any stars. She was surprisingly comfortable too, given how jagged the rock on the island generally was. She rolled over to her front.

Korra yelped as she fell down onto hard wood. She groaned, and pushed herself up after a moment of hesitation. The young Avatar lit a bright fire in her palm and looked around. 

Korra was in her room, which had been pitch black because the lamp had been extinguished. She stretched, purring in delight at how free her joints felt. She had slept like a log, not having felt this mobile in ages. She rubbed her eyes, and groggily lit the oil lamp. After that was done, Korra racked her mind for her most recent memories.

Korra remembered Azula telling her that she had to try as hard as she could. Korra had gone overboard though, and collapsed after she was done. She’d fainted right there and then on the spot. Korra felt her stomach rumble.

“I’ll go get some breakfast,” Korra said out loud, then a sudden realisation hit her. She’d passed out during Azula’s test. That meant that she wouldn’t be able to move on. “No, no, no,” Korra mumbled desolately, putting her hands in her face.

 _Maybe if I go to her immediately, she won’t see it as weak,_ Korra thought. _She might give me a free pass._

Korra ran in front of the mirror. She was still dressed in her Fire Nation clothes, which reeked of sweat, since they hadn’t been washed, obviously. She felt around the room for the hairpiece she usually wore with metalbending, sensing it under the covers of her bed, and pulled it towards her. Korra grabbed it mid-air without even looking and clumsily inserted it. It took ten seconds longer than usual to do it properly, because of her rushing, but when she did finally manage, she practically jumped down the ladder, landing hard on her feet. She shoved her boots on, which had been left by the door, and flung it open.

It was dawn. It seemed that Korra hadn’t missed any training sessions, fortunately. She started sprinting towards the usual rendezvous point, but had to stop due to her stomach growling. She frowned, wondering why she was so hungry this early in the morning. She spat out the saliva gathering in her mouth and continued with a slow jog to the stairs.

When Korra arrived at the base, she stopped, took a breather, and continued her journey. Despite the fact that all the stiffness was gone out of her legs, she still didn’t have much energy. When she got to the top, Azula was waiting there calmly.

“Korra,” Azula greeted. “How wonderful of you to join me here.”

“I'm so, sorry, Master, Azula,” Korra said in between pants, “for, passing, out last, night.”

“What do you mean?” Azula asked, although there was no hint of curiosity about the way she said it. “You didn’t come along last night.”

“I didn’t come along?” Korra asked, afraid at the game Azula seemed to be playing. “I passed out, remember?”

“That was thirty-six hours ago,” Azula revealed. “You slept in. Because of that, I’ve got a punishment you could never even begin to imagine, and it’s all got to be finished today.”

Korra shoulders slumped. She was partially shocked at how she had slept thirty-hours without waking up, but the 'punishment' Azula was talking about sounded worse than grim. Korra couldn’t remember one time where Azula had exaggerated the difficulty of her training. If anything, she usually made it seem easier than it really was!

“What is it?” Korra asked meekly, looking up. “Do I have to fight ten of your best firebenders?”

“Even worse!” Azula warned, then held out something she’d had hidden behind her back. Korra braced herself for the worst, but her nose twitched at the smell. She looked at what Azula had in her hand. It was… a bowl of porridge.

“Porridge…?” Korra said, then looked at the old woman. Had she gone senile? Korra just got even more confused when Azula started to buckle over laughing at her student.

“Ha ha ha!” the former heir to the Fire Nation crown croaked. “You should’ve seen the look on your face!” She pointed her finger at Korra, still laughing.

“Aha ha,” Korra said unconvincingly. “So… what’s my punishment?”

“There is no punishment,” Azula revealed, a content grin on her face. “We’re starting your new training today. I need to explain the basics before you even attempt to go near it first though. Eat up, you can’t be thinking about your stomach while trying to conduct lightning.”

“So we're-“ Korra started, excitement building up in her as she heard Azula talk.

“Yes!” Azula snapped, her humour rapidly draining now. “Now let’s go to the Agni Kai arena. Quickly!” Azula started to strut away, and Korra hurried to keep up with her. She wolfed down her porridge straight from the bowl, no spoon, and walked uncertainly behind her master. These sudden mood change were a regular occurrence from Azula.

“Are you… angry at me?” Korra asked. She didn’t want to get herself in trouble, but she couldn’t let Azula spring a real punishment on her unexpectedly later when she was recuperating.

“No,” Azula admitted, not looking back. “I purposely forced you into overexerting yourself for too long, to gauge your real strength. You couldn’t unleash it all at once for the sake of consistently, but I never imagined that you had that inside of you.”

“Oh, ok,” Korra said. She didn’t give too much to her reply because a burning thought had just hit her.

 _Did Azula just admit that she was impressed with me_? Korra thought. “Hey, Master Azula, how many people have equalled the power that wall of fire?”

“Three,” Azula revealed, leading to Korra’s breath catching in her throat. “Four, if you count me, but two of them are dead. So there’s only one man capable still alive. One was your predecessor, Avatar Aang, in the Avatar State, and the other was a woman who I met in an asylum back when I was fifteen. Her name was Nagi. A fearless woman, who always backed me.”

“What happened to her?” Korra asked.

“Died young,” Azula said nonchalantly. “Blew herself up, but to be honest, we all knew it was inevitable.”

“Oh,” Korra responded, not sure how to react. “Who’s the one who’s still then?”

“Tatsuo,” Azula revealed. Korra blinked.

“Tatsuo?” Korra repeated. “You mean, your right-hand man?”

“Yes,” Azula confirmed, as they reached the Agni arena they always trained on. “He was more than willing to unleash it on you, but he respected my orders. You could probably beat him if you went into the Avatar State and used all four elements, but without that celestial power, you’d be burnt to a crisp. Many Avatars died young, in their twenties or even late teens, so don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“I didn’t plan on it,” Korra muttered, making a mental note to be much more respectful around Tatsuo in the future. She’d barely seen him ever since the first day, but she was going to make a special effort anyway now.

“Enough with the chit-chat,” Azula declared. “Face me, and listen carefully. No detail is too small. Ready?”

“Ok,” Korra said, switching on. She faced Azula, giving her 100% of her attention.

“I’m going to begin with what conducting lightning through firebending is,” Azula began. “Lightning has always been the purest form of firebending. Combustion bending requires airbending genes, so it doesn’t come nearly as close in terms of purity. A bolt of lightning doesn’t wobble or splay out like regular fire, because all of its power is condensed. I’ve heard some call it the cold-blooded fire, because you can’t be conflicted emotionally whatsoever, in order to use it. You gather the energy from around you and you stab with a fierce follow-through.” Azula demonstrated as she talked.

“When I first saw Amon take someone’s firebending, they were shooting out lightning,” Korra mentioned. “But as their bending got shut off, it started to roam all over the place, until it turned to fire, and then nothing as his bending was taken.”

“That’s a good example,” Azula appreciated, “but don’t interrupt me! I’ll ask for your opinion if I want it!”

Korra pouted, but didn’t retort. She knew by now that she couldn’t beat Azula in an argument; it wasn’t worth the effort.

“Anyway, when we’re doing your training,” Azula continued, “you will soon be firing powerful bolts. You are seeking to learn combustion bending, so I won’t be placing a high priority on how much you can moderate your voltage. Lightning, although we generate it, is not a power under our leash. We give it a path, a direction, but it’s too ferocious to contain.

“While I’m on that, I need to emphasize one huge point. Never, ever, let it travel through your heart! You should know this from learning how to redirect lightning, but again, never let it travel through your heart. Understand?”

“Yes,” Korra replied, listening carefully.

“Now I’m going to educate you on the history of lightning,” Azula informed Korra. “It may seem strange now, but back in the early days of Avatar Kyoshi, the ability for firebenders to produce lightning from their fingertips was generally regarded as a myth. Only a few in the Fire Nation had actually claimed to have witnessed it, resulting in Avatar Kyoshi nearly dying when she first encountered it.”

 _Kyoshi?_ Korra thought _. There’s no way she nearly got killed by a lightning bolt, she was too powerful. Surely, as a waterbender, she would’ve known how to redirect it_. Korra decided to bring this up.

“If you had been paying attention,” Azula scolded Korra, “you would know she thought it was a myth too! Besides, she was incredibly powerful, and lived to nearly three hundred years old. If you live that long, you have to be prepared for any situation. Anyone with a bit of common sense jumps away from a bolt of lightning that they can see coming, unless they know for a fact that they can redirect it. I don’t know the exact details of the fight, but apparently Kyoshi managed to kill him using the Avatar State.

“Not too long after that,” Azula continued, “my ancestor, a man named Jimmu, took over the whole of the Fire Nation from his province. He was an exceptional firebender, the first person to create blue flames, and after studying the technique carefully from a different man who was found to be able to create lightning, perfected it to a tee. After that, he decreed that it was punishable by death for anyone who wasn’t of his bloodline to learn this ability of conducting lightning. Over time, this honour expanded to high ranking military officers too.”

“How do so many people know it today then?” Korra asked. She was pushing her luck with the questions, but she figured that if no detail was too small, she was inclined to ask a few here and there.

“That was because my _brother_ abolished the law decreeing that only certain individuals could create lightning,” Azula answered, with a lot of contempt in the word 'brother'. “It spread to the colonies, and I was forced to keep up with the times, so I taught it to my students here as well. It’s a real pity, commoners have nothing to do with it! It was even my cursed uncle that learnt how to redirect lightning, it’s-“ Azula stopped speaking suddenly, and took a deep breath.

“Is something wrong?” Korra asked.

“No,” Azula said after a moment’s hesitation, although she still rubbed her temples.

“Do you want to talk about something?” Korra offered, and for a moment, even if only just a moment, Azula looked like she wanted to say something. Something that was straining to be released. But then she resumed her usual stoic expression, reminding Korra of the old Lin Beifong.

“You’re not my therapist!” she snapped, getting a little more irritable. “Anyway, I’m going to slightly alter the forms I taught you a few weeks back. Show me how you would pose to create a double flamethrower from both of your hands.”

“Ok,” Korra obliged, and faced away from Azula. She pushed her right leg forward, putting most of her weight on it, making sure her right foot was firm. She supported her left leg on her toes, and stretched her fists in the same direction her right foot was pointing, then, she turned her torso to face Azula again. Now, her left arm was arching over her head above her right, as opposed to beside each other.

“Why is this stance better for firebending?” Azula quizzed.

“By placing your arms above your head,” Korra answered methodically, having had it hammered into her, “you take away their weight that your ribcage was supporting when they’re down by your side. That leaves more room for your ribs to expand, and therefore, more room for your lungs to expand when breathing. This will give you more oxygen which you can convert into fire. Also, stretching your body to the side so much will also lengthen your ribcage. All this combined means that you can create a larger or longer-lasting flamethrower, depending on your purpose.”

“Correct,” Azula said. “It seems I taught you well.”

Korra rolled her eyes. Her alternative to learning them had been another three laps around the island for every form not memorised perfectly in every aspect.

“But I’m going to change something,” Azula repeated. “Point your index and middle fingers out, on both hands. I want you to create the double flamethrower through your fingers. From now on, that is the only way I will allow you to firebend with your hands. It will be frustrating at first, and very tempting to revert back to your whole hands, but with lightning especially, you need to use two fingers.”

Korra took in what Azula said, and pointed out two fingers on each hand. She closed her eyes and focused on channelling her chi through them, which was much easier said than done. The chi in her arms when she used firebending normally rushed through and burst out her knuckles, but when it got to her extended fingers, Korra just felt her temperature rising instead. She buckled down on her effort and squeezed out the fire.

Two medium sized flamethrowers, much smaller than the large ones she’d intended, erupted and blazed out of her fingertips. Korra was disappointed, although she noticed that they were nearly hot enough to cut through rock, even though she didn’t intend on that.

“Most people switching experience what you’re doing right now,” Azula came in, even though Korra hadn’t said anything. “You’re wasting your energy at the minute, but it’s a very common mistake.”

“Really?” Korra asked, relieved.

“Yes,” Azula said. “If you imagine your arm as a hose, your hand is the adjustor. Your fist is a wide spray, and would water the plants no problem, but it wouldn’t hurt someone. Your fingers, however, are the opposite. They are directed. They will concentrate on a point and blast the dirt off. This relates to firebending, although on a much harsher scale.”

“I think I get you,” Korra said, standing up normally. “But what was that about me wasting energy?”

“When you were channelling your chi just there,” Azula explained, tracing her fingers along her arm to demonstrate, “it all fit perfectly until the very end. But then,” she said, pointing to her two outstretched fingers, “it all got rammed in together at the end. Not all your power was exerted with the minimum amount of effort necessary. It’s like thirty people in a room are all rushing out of a door. If they all run single file, the room will be emptied as quickly as possible. However, if everyone at the front squirms to get out, the room will not be emptied as quickly as possible. Switch in your fingers with the door and your chi with people, and that’s what happened just there. Does that make sense?”

Korra thought about what Azula had said. “Yes, it does.” Azula was about to continue speaking, but Korra got her question in first. “How much energy would I be wasting, in that case?”

“Too much,” Azula replied, not bothered to go deeper into it, but Korra got the message. “If you take this into account, what do you think will happen if you try to shoot lightning with a closed fist?”

“It’ll… be weaker but bigger?” Korra guessed.

“No, there are two possibilities” Azula informed her. “The first is that the lightning will splay out in all directions, divided up too many times to count. The energy that you hit someone with will barely faze them, unless it’s an incredibly powerful amount gathered in the first place. The second alternative is it blowing up in front of you, as what happened during your first training session. We don’t want that, now do we?”

“No,” Korra agreed.

“Good,” Azula said. “Now, put aside the stances I have already taught you. I want you to just blast fire out of your fingertips for the next half an hour, to get you used to channelling the chi through a smaller funnel. Again, don’t bother with stances, just focus on getting your body accustomed to it.”

Korra obliged, and for the next thirty-three minutes, she just put all her concentration into equalling out her input of chi and output of fire, until she got the feel for it down. It definitely wasn’t practical for normal fighting, and wouldn’t be for another while until she would be able to do it without thinking, but when she was satisfied that she wasn’t wasting any chi, Korra turned back to Azula. Azula didn’t say anything bad, meaning that she was happy with Korra’s progress for the time being, and rolled back her shoulders with a sigh. Her old age was definitely catching up to her, despite her liveliness in belittling Korra with every mistake the young Avatar made.

“I want you to pay attention to every motion my body makes when I tell you to do so,” Azula ordered Korra. Korra nodded in agreement, and Azula continued;

“The greater the voltage in proportion to your power, the more you must be absolute in your resolve to use lightning. As I said earlier, it is called by some the cold-blooded fire, there can be no conflicting views in your head. You must separate the positive and negative energies in your body, and use only one to fuel your conviction. You must impale your will into the action, otherwise, you’ll lose control and wreak havoc on your own body while gathering lightning. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Korra responded.

“For an example,” Azula went on, “I think I can use that hag Katara as evidence.” Korra released a deep breath to prevent her from getting angry at Azula. “When we were teenagers, I was emotionally unstable when she and my brother challenged me for the title of Fire Lord. I was a wreck mentally, if I do say so myself. But when I tried to shoot her down with lightning, I was absolute in my conviction to kill her. In fact, I tried numerous times with lightning.”

Korra’s blood really boiled at that last statement, but she forced herself to keep perspective by looking at the tattoo on Azula’s forehead. _I’m not here to prove to Azula that she’s morally wrong_ , Korra thought. “I understand,” she told Azula, swallowing an insult.

“Good,” Azula said. “Now, I’m going to show you the beginner’s form for learning how to conduct lightning. Forget anything you might have learnt outside Crescent Island, because a student has never failed to learn under me. Not once.”

“Really?” Korra asked, then bit her tongue, realising how Azula would respond a second too late.

“No,” Azula said sarcastically. “I just said it to impress the Avatar.”

“Sorry,” Korra apologised quietly.

“Make it up for me with good form,” Azula ordered. “Copy me.” She stood up straight, and held her arms out horizontally, posing like the letter 'T'. Korra followed suit. Azula then bent her left elbow and pointed her two fingers straight down at the ground, but keeping her elbow in line with her shoulders. She did the same with her right arm, except instead of pointing at the ground, she pointed her two fingers straight up at the sky. Korra copied it exactly.

“Stay like that,” Azula told her, and then dropped her stance. She took ten steps back to make sure that Korra would have to purposely go for her to hit her, then sat down on the ground, even though her chair wasn’t too far away.

“What do you want me to do now?” Korra asked.

“This next part is very easy to mess up, because people are complacent with it,” Azula informed Korra. “I want you to nail the motion of creating electricity first of all, so don’t put any of your chi into it yet. Keep your upper arms in the same position, but rotate your one of your forearms clockwise, the other anti-clockwise. Keep your fingers rigid. I will repeat myself, do not gather any electricity right now.”

“Okay,” Korra agreed. She started turning her left forearm anti clockwise and her right forearm clockwise, for the next ten minutes. It was actually a lot more confusing than Korra had thought it would be, but after few attempts of getting it wrong, she perfected the motion. When she hadn’t made a mistake in over three minutes, Azula clapped her hands once to get Korra’s attention. Korra dropped her arms, as they were beginning to ache a fair bit.

“You should have that down now,” Azula told her. “We'll start with a tiny voltage. I want you to burn the chi at the tip of your fingers as if you were trying to erase the space where the electricity will be generated. Rotate your arms three times like you have been for the last few minutes, this time gathering electricity, then touch all four of them together at stomach height. Then, jab.” Azula demonstrated by stabbing her two fingers at the sea.

“Doesn’t seem too hard!” Korra commented, getting jittery. She got into position, but Azula just walked up and poked Korra in the forehead.

“DON’T GET EXCITED!” she barked. “Hold your emotions back!”

 _Not giving me a great example_ , Korra thought, but kept the assessment to herself. She just closed her eyes, and took five deep breaths through her nose, calming her heartrate.

Korra raised her arms into a 'T' pose, then started rotating her forearms three times like Azula had told her to. She kept her index and middle fingers straight as she imagined the hottest fire she’d ever created sizzling there, albeit on a tiny scale. It rubbed and sparked in its own attempt to incinerate itself. When Korra opened her eyes, she had to devote all her effort into staying calm as the three rotations were completed. 

Electricity was sparkling at the end of her fingers. The voltage was tiny, but it was still the most she’d ever managed. Korra took one deep breath as she touched the tips of her fingers together in line with her belly button. She felt the energy surge on contact.

 _Now!_ she realised. 

Korra shot her hands out in opposite directions as she felt it course through her arm pointing at the sea. She exhaled sharply as a small zap, barely enough to give someone a static shock, bolted out of her fingers.

“I did it!” Korra exclaimed giddily after a moment. “I did it! I can conduct lightning from my fingertips!” Azula gave out to Korra for getting ahead of herself but she didn’t care. She punched the air in glee.

“There’s one more thing I should mention,” Azula said, still annoyed, and Korra turned around. “Having lightning course around your body for more than a few seconds is very dangerous, even if you can direct and redirect it. Your body isn’t built to withstand what type of power for any more than a short period of time, so just keep that in mind. Now get back into it.”

“I will, thanks,” Korra responded, and got into the stance once again.


	35. Agni Kai to the Death

_Four months after Korra’s arrival on Crescent Island. Korra is 23 years old now. The story is one year, three months and about three weeks on from Chapter 1 by this point._

Korra slowed her breathing down as much as she could. She was sitting on a rock just outside the arena where she had spent much of her time training ever since she arrived. The twenty-three-year-old was definitely having second thoughts now, despite the fact that she was so much better at firebending than before. She desperately wanted to see Kalla, but Azula forbade her from leaving the island. Korra would’ve partially understood Azula’s decision as visiting Kalla might have looked like a way to get out of training, but that didn't seem to be the case. Why? Because Azula was bringing up Kalla every chance she got.

Korra had accidentally let it slip one day, and ever since then, Azula was trying her hardest to piss Korra off. She was clearly trying to create a rift between them, and boy, was she succeeding. All of their conversations were snappy and threatened to break out into a fight any minute now. Azula had now appointed at least three guards to watch Korra training with Azula at all times, in case Korra attacked her. Korra had been on the verge of snapping and lashing out physically at Azula multiple times, but she knew that if she laid a finger on Azula, the entire island would come for her head. She already got plenty of snide remarks from passer-by’s wherever she might be, so she wasn’t under any illusions about her popularity. As a result, she had become quick to return any insults.

Korra did the normal rotation routine as she gathered lightning at her fingertips. Azula had made slow but steady progress with Korra, making sure the Avatar never got ahead of herself. Time wasn’t an issue on the island, that being why Azula wouldn’t tell Korra how long she’d been training. It felt endless to Korra, but she just grudgingly accepted it. Korra touched her two fingertips together, the familiar feeling of power coursing through her body coming back. She straightened out her arms and pointed at the sky. 

Lightning blitzed out of her fingers, a bolt big enough to envelope an entire car streaking out across the sky. It kept on shooting out for two or three bursts, before Korra was sure that it was all gone. Korra took at extra second anyway to make sure that it had all left her body, before she relaxed.

“Not too bad, Avatar,” Azula remarked. For a short while before Korra had leaked accidentally that she had a daughter, Azula had kind of started to call Korra by her name and not ‘Avatar’, but that had long since passed.

“What do you mean, 'not too bad'?!” Korra retorted. “That’s the most powerful bolt of lightning I’ve seen on this island so far, and you just tell me it’s 'not too bad'!?”

“Hush,” Azula taunted. “I think it’s for the best if you just calm down. You can’t expect to be a good mother if-“

“WOULD YOU EVER SHUT THE FUCK UP?!” Korra screamed. “THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!”

“Just saying,” Azula remarked, rolling her eyes. Korra fumed, and turned away from her teacher.

 _She’s just trying to get a rise out of me_ , Korra thought as she once again started gathering electricity. She was breathing quite heavily to try and control her anger, but it wasn’t working. _I'll make her stare in awe at this next one_ , she vowed.

Korra brought her forearms around twice as many times as usual, gathering up as much power as she possibly could. When she touched her fingers together, her body shook with the tremendous rush. She pinpointed one particular cloud in the sky, and demanded from herself that all her power be directed at that white puff in the distance.

Korra whelped as all of her energy exploded right in front of her. She was thrown back way past Azula, landing roughly on her back. After a moment of laying in the dirt, she moaned, frustrated.

“That’s utterly pathetic,” Azula stated, walking up and standing over Korra. “Letting your emotions get the better of you like that.”

“All you’ve done for the past few weeks is constantly belittle me!” Korra retorted. “You’re probably just waiting for the perfect moment to tell everyone my secret to piss me off even more!”

“That’s preposterous, I respect the fact that it’s private information,” Azula teased. She had bragged on numerous occasions of how nice she was to not tell anyone. Korra wasn’t particularly inclined to believe her, but one time she sensed for Azula’s heartbeat while she said that, and it didn’t speed up in anyway whatsoever when she told Korra, so the water-tribe woman decided to believe her. 

Korra was ready to toss that out the window at any time, though.

“I feel like the only reason you even bother coming anymore is just to get a rise out of me!” Korra gave out. “It clearly isn’t worth your time to be patient with me despite the fact that I’m one of your fastest learning students ever! Why don’t you just let me leave now?!”

“You will complete your training,” Azula stated calmly. “I have never failed a student, and I won’t let you ruin my perfect record. I am a woman of reputation, and I won’t let a petulant Avatar spoil it because one thing out of a hundred doesn’t go her way.”

“It’s not the setbacks!” Korra cried. “You’re the most toxic teacher I’ve ever had! You find joy in making me angry for the sake of it! I have tried time and time again to be patient and ignore your comments, but six hours a day of listening to you make fun of me isn’t something I can just brush off!”

“Are you challenging my methods?” Azula questioned.

“YES!” Korra shouted, slashing fire at the ground to emphasize her point. “I AM!” Azula reared her head back.

“Any firebender must learn to control their temper!” Azula scolded. “We’re done training today, including the session later on at dusk! There will be severe consequences for you tomorrow, unless I think that you have realised how out-of-line what you just did is!”

“Whatever!” Korra replied, turning and stomping away back to her house. As she walked around the mountainside and back down the stairs, small embers sparked out of her nose. She didn’t try to calm herself. 

Everything about the island annoyed Korra, from the strict training, to the treatment she got from everyone else on the island. She cursed everything she could of about the island every name under the sun.

As she was walking back, a small man, who looked like he was in his early thirties, spat at Korra as she walked by. If she’d seen it, she might have managed to control her temper by avoiding it, but it landed right in her eye. She automatically waterbent it out and flung it back at the man, enraged.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Korra demanded, squaring up to him. He glared back, and they butted heads.

“I’m learning to protect my country,” the man responded coldly. “I don’t know why the Master has allowed you to be taught here! You’ll never be welcome on this island, Avatar!” This man, like most, clearly didn’t know that Azula couldn’t firebend anymore, or of her and Korra’s deal. Korra wasn’t allowed to spread the word before she restored it, or else Azula would have her killed.

“It’s none of your business why Azula’s decided to train me!” Korra told him. “Besides, don’t treat her like a god! She’s been nothing but a hag to me for the past while!”

“How… how dare you insult the Master?!” the man asked, shocked. “Learn your place, you little piece of shit!” With that, the man brought his hand back. Blue fire seared out of his fingertips to form a blue fire dagger, and he brought his hand forward to impale it in Korra.

Korra was too quick for him though. She recognised what he was about to do, knelt down on one knee, and created a fireball in her palm. She planted it in his belly, and it exploded. The small man flew back into a house, and smashed into the hard concrete. He groaned, but still managed to get up. Korra got into a fighting stance with one palm facing the sky, the other one open towards the man. A few other firebenders who had been close, got into fighting stances too. Korra prepared herself for an ugly fight. She was done taking the abuse.

“Wait!” the man called out, pushing himself up. “Don’t attack!” He got several angry looks from the other firebenders, and a confused one from Korra.

“What’s the matter, Shinji?” one asked. “She just attacked you, we should kill her now!”

“He started it!” Korra defended herself, getting another angry glare from the other person.

“No, I want to settle it with an audience,” he declared. He pointed at Korra menacingly. “I challenge you to an Agni Kai! To the death!”

Korra inhaled sharply. That was a straight up duel to the bloody end. At first, she was going to deny it, but after a few seconds of reconsideration, she changed her mind. She didn’t want to let the others one up her, and it was considered incredibly cowardly to decline an upfront challenge.

“Fine!” she accepted, making her voice heard. “At the Takefusa Kubo Arena at dusk today!”

“I’ll see you then,” he warned maliciously. Korra _harrumphed_ and walked past him with her head held high. She began to mentally psyche herself up for what would surely be an intense battle.

* * *

  
Pale sunlight streaked across the island, casting long shadows across the ugly mountainside dotted with houses. Korra dropped her cloak, rolling her shoulders back. She had a plain dark red tank top on, a pair of black shorts, and her everyday boots. She yawned, although she was anything but tired. It was her body mustering all the energy it could before a fight.

About 180 people were crammed in along the edge of the arena on all sides. The rest of the islanders were on lookout duty. Korra didn’t sense one supporter on her end. Not even Azula, who was perched on the highest seat, her legs crossed. Korra’s opponent, on the opposite side of the Agni Kai arena, rolled his head in anticipation.

“This is an official Agni Kai!” the referee announced. “The rules are simple, but I will go over them anyway! This is a challenge to the death, so very little is not allowed. Lightning is permitted, but any form of attack must come from your own body. You may use any means to defend yourself, so long as it does not include myself, or any spectators.” What the ref meant there was that neither of them could raise a wall of fire underneath the other, but that they could raise one to defend themselves.

“Advice from spectators is allowed. If one contestant wishes to forfeit during the match, they shall be beaten severely as a consequence.” That was no joke, Korra had heard a story or two from Azula, who’d created the rule to stomp out weakness, apparently.

“Only firebending is permitted,” the referee added, looking at Korra. “This match will be concluded when one is rendered incapable of continuing, or dead. Do you accept this challenge from Shinji Nakemura, Avatar?”

“Bring it!” Korra shouted, signalling her enthusiasm. Shinji just smiled back sadistically.

“Begin!” the ref declared, and jumped into the crowd, eager to watch too. His only job from now was to disqualify either of them if one tried to walk away.

“Die, Avatar!” Shinji screamed, taking a deep breath. He pointed his fingers at Korra, and a large blue fireball started to gather in front of him. It grew to twice the size of his body, then he unleashed it at Korra.

“He’s powerful,” Korra muttered, backing up fifteen metres to avoid it. Shinji had shot it towards the ground so it would explode at her feet. It connected with where Korra had been standing, and an eruption of blue flames lit up the crowd’s faces. It went from nearly both sides of the arena, so Korra couldn’t tell what Shinji was doing for a few seconds.

Shinji wasn’t waiting though, and came through the fire as it sizzled out. He kicked sideways at her with both legs, two more fireballs flying at Korra. These weren’t nearly as big though, and Korra decided to stop them head on as a signal of intent. She held out her open hands, fingers shut, stopping both fireballs as they halted in front of her. They rushed around her body, momentarily taking up all her surroundings. When the initial force had been stopped, Korra circled her hands above her head, then thrust them both horizontally. The fire began to twirl around her for a brief second, before it all expanded outwards. It was beautiful for a second, before the blue fire died mid-air.

“That’s pathetic!” Korra taunted as Shinji waved away the harmless flames that came at him. “You’re weak!” It wasn’t a life-ending insult, but it certainly riled up the already agitated spectators, not to mention Shinji.

“Kill her, Nakemura!”

“Wipe that smug look off of her face!”

“Don’t take that!”

“Put your last four years here to good use!”

“You’d better watch your mouth, Avatar!” Shinji shouted aggressively, as Korra got tons of verbal abuse from the crowd too. No-one attacked her physically though, so she was able to ignore the insults.

Shinji lashed his arm out, a whip of blue fire appearing in his hand. It elongated to twenty metres long, and Shinji snarled. He whipped it at Korra with all his strength. Korra kept her eye on the whip the entire time, as she brought her hands up, still open. One was flat facing the sky, while the other was facing the whip. Korra slapped the whip as it bore down on her, and it recoiled. Korra repelled his fire whip countless times for the next minute, trying to read Shinji’s strength. After he started to get a bit closer to landing a hit on her with his attacks, Korra stopped stalling. She beat away his whip so hard that it flew across to the other end of the arena, then created her own.

Korra whipped relentlessly at Shinji as he struggled to keep up, barely parrying her attacks. It was like two flimsy giant swords, one orange and one blue, were fighting to the bitter end. Korra edged closer to him until she was seven metres away as she continued attacking. Blue fire was normally stronger than regular orange fire, but Korra was being very offensive at the moment, while Shinji was barely able to keep up with her tempo.

Then suddenly, Shinji’s body was opened up while her whip was temporarily beaten away. His attention was diverted, and Korra used the momentary distraction to pounce on him. She brought her free arm around in a curling arc, a second whip forming as she swung. It grew and grew, just becoming long enough to hit him. It swiped at his legs, and the small man fell hard on his side. His whip dissipated into thin air as Korra’s first whip crashed down on his ribcage right after she landed a hit with her second whip. He cried out in agony as Korra didn’t hold back.

Shinji didn’t lie down easily though, and pointed two fingers guns at Korra, reaching over his body to get them side by side. He blasted out twin blue flamethrowers out at Korra as he lay there. Korra released her whips immediately, and got into the proper stance for twin flamethrowers, with her own finger guns. Not a second too early, Korra’s own two streams of orange fire met Shinji’s joint flamethrower half a yard in front of her. She gritted her teeth, staring right on as she poured plenty of juice into her flamethrowers.

Shinji growled as Korra’s now large flamethrower slowly started to push back his. He howled, as he poured plenty of effort into his, but Korra’s stance gave her the upper hand, despite blue flames naturally being hotter. This was because Korra was able to take in more oxygen, as a result of her good posture.

Shinji realised as Korra’s flamethrower threatened to swallow him completely that he wasn’t going to win like this. So he kicked out, still lying down. A fireball arched around to connect with Korra’s back. Korra saw it out of the corner of her eye, cursing as she realised that she wouldn’t be able to keep up the flamethrower and counter the fire kick simultaneously. She was putting too much weight on her front leg to be able to twist properly in time.

Korra acted immediately, stopping with her large flamethrower and dropping the ground on her belly. The fireball passed over her head harmlessly, but Shinji’s blue fire roared back at her with a vengeance. Korra managed to push herself back up onto her feet.

 _Not enough time_! she realised, and acted instinctively.

Korra clapped her open hands together, fingers straight and tight. She thrust them forward to meet the flame, then started tracing them loosely in a circle. The flame parted just in front of her, then started spiralling out harmlessly. Korra kept the motion up for another few seconds, controlling the onslaught without a huge degree of difficulty. Shinji kept it up for another fourteen seconds, before it suddenly stopped. Korra kept her hands as all the blue flames evaporated into thin air, wary for a quick follow up.

Shinji stood up, breathing hard. The continuous, intense flamethrower had taken a lot out of him, but he hadn’t expected Korra to still be standing, not harmed in the slightest, after such a powerful attack. Not only that, she had done it without even an excess of effort. He pushed himself up back onto his feet.

“You’re decent, Avatar, I’ll give you that!” he admitted. “But you’re still dead meat!” Korra couldn’t think of anything witty, so she kept her mouth shut and her eyes on her opponent.

Shinji yelled suddenly, slashing two vertical fire uppercuts with his index and middle fingers. He got on one heel and spun with his leg outstretched, following up the two fire uppercuts with a fire roundhouse kick. He cut diagonally with both arms, creating a blue X that followed the fire roundhouse kick. Then, he bellowed a huge fireball out of his mouth.

 _I’m done if they hit me_ , Korra thought. So she held her hands out limp, fingers pointing to the ground, and planted her feet shoulder width apart. She tugged her fingers up.

A five-metre thick wall of fire just wide enough to cover Korra’s whole body soared up in between her and Shinji. It clashed from below into Shinji’s barrage of attacks, resulting in a wrestling match for a few seconds while Korra ate up his attacks. The fireball managed to crash over the top, but Korra was able to roll out of the way by that point. She felt the ground shudder slightly as a wave of heat accompanied a small boom right behind her. Shinji was definitely going for the kill.

Shinji was panting really loudly now, a sheen of sweat coating his face, visible even from Korra’s position. Korra smirked, knowing now was the time to go on the offensive.

Korra pointed her two fingers guns at Shinji. He prepared to counter her attack, but Korra just shot a flashy fireball a yard in front of him, instead of at him. It exploded, temporarily blinding Shinji and sending up a cloud of dust. Korra sprinted forward into the dust cloud, just barely able to make out his silhouette. The crowd started shouting warnings for Shinji, but there wasn’t nearly enough time for him to register them. Korra got right up in front of him, then kicked at his head. A fireball followed her toes, illuminating the dust just in time for Shinji, who tried to raise an arm to protect himself. It wasn’t nearly enough though, and Korra’s fire head-kick smashed into his temple.

Shinji was thrown a few metres to his right. He tumbled onto the ground, moaning, and rolled onto his back while clutching his head. Korra wasn’t nearly convinced though, crouching down. She extended her leg and swept her foot at Shinji. A carpet of fire rushed to meet him, connecting with a sickening sizzle, and flipped him onto his front. 

This revealed extensive burns where Korra had fire-kicked him, plastered all of the right side of his face. She wasn’t done yet though. Korra front-flipped, a column of fire coming out of her heels, and the resulting column smacked into Shinji. He spasmed with the attack, crying out in pain, and crumpled.

Korra didn’t dare give him any chances however, given how intent he was on killing her just a few minutes ago. She marched over to the small man, grabbed the back of his collar, and hoisted him up. He had a black eye now too, from slamming his face into the dirt. In stark contrast, the only injuries Korra had were the scratches she’d accumulated from training earlier. Korra dug her knuckles into the sweet spot just in between his abdomen and rib cage. A dazzling display of flames erupted from her fist, burning his shirt off and scaring his chest badly as he went flying to the other end of the arena.

Korra walked over to him again, Shinji lying motionless on the ground, but not yet unconscious somehow. She glanced at the crowd, who had gone completely silent now, apart from Azula.

“Kill him!” she demanded violently. “Use the technique I taught you in training! Finish him! Be ruthless!”

Korra saw all her anger from her time on the island lying in the shape of the small man that had spat on her earlier. All the frustration, death threats, anger, distrust, hate, shunning, everything. All the negativity. She could let out all her pent-up rage and send a message to everyone who gave her shit right now. It was so tempting. 

And in that moment, Korra decided what she was going to do.

Korra stood over Nakemura, who was barely capable of lifting in his head. She culled all emotion and began to rotate her forearms three times each. Electricity sizzled out of her fingertips, as she looked him dead in the eye. He sneered at her, but Korra saw through to the genuine fear. She wasn’t gathering too much, because any half decent strike would kill him from this range.

 _Pierce through the forehead_ , Azula’s voice bounded through her head. _One clean strike that doesn’t require too much power, and is painless, if that’s what you desire_.

Korra inhaled deeply. Shinji tried to move out of the way, but he was way too badly injured for that. He coughed up blood as Korra finished her rotations and brought her fingers together. Her conviction grew as the power flooded her veins, and she pointed her fingers out.

The small but dense lightning bolt zipped out of Korra’s fingers. It connected with her target perfectly, and left a black mark where it zapped. Perhaps she had used a little bit too much power, but she just regarded what she’d done calmly, and began to walk away. There was only stunned silence from the crowd.

“This match is over,” Korra told the referee. The ref looked at her with an unreadable expression. Korra just ignored him and kept walking, intent on going back to her house to rest. She had training with Azula tomorrow, as usual, but she was emotionally drained too. She needed to brood over whether or not she’d just made the right decision in the heat of the moment.

“Why?” a voice called out from behind her. She turned around, regarding the person with a neutral expression.

“Why what?” she countered.

“Why didn’t you kill me?” Shinji asked, his head looking down his body at her, one eye shut. The black mark that Korra had created was smouldering harmlessly right beside his head, above his shoulder. The only damage he’d got from the lighting was that the flash had temporarily blinded his left eye, which was clenched shut.

“I didn’t feel like it,” Korra told him truthfully, speaking loud enough for the entire court to hear. Azula glared at Korra, practically foaming at the mouth.

“You don’t have the guts to kill me, it's obvious!” he taunted, trying to get something back on her from his fragile condition.

“I know what it’s like to be beaten up badly,” Korra stated, thinking of Zaheer. “And I’ve been on the verge of death numerous times too. Because of that, I think twice when I hold someone’s life in my hands.”

Korra’s mind flashed back to when she very nearly jumped off a cliff after losing her fire, earth and waterbending. To when her uncle tried to damn her soul to suffering for the rest of eternity. Zaheer almost succeeding in suffocating her. The fear she felt as Kuivera’s laser bore down on her. Most recently, to when Tokuga would’ve ended her life if she hadn’t bloodbent him. Too many times to just do it to someone she’d met for the first time today.

“You’re a coward!” he shouted across the tense Agni Kai arena. “The weak always get crushed by the strong, and one day someone won’t be as scared as you were just now, when they're in your position to be decisive!”

“I just showed you mercy,” Korra reminded him. “You ought to be a little more grateful.” She turned back, and strutted out of the courtyard.

She kept a poker face on, but inside, Korra was in turmoil. She had desperately wanted to give everyone an example of what happened when you messed with the Avatar, but just a tiny string of self-constraint had held her back. Just a tiny sliver of advice had kept her from ending someone’s life. She was extremely surprised that the lightning hadn’t blown up in her face and humiliated her, given how split she’d been. The onlookers definitely all had an opinion of what she’d just done, but none of them stopped her as she walked through the crowd. Apart from one, of course.

A hand yanked at her shoulder and spun her around. A furious Azula was glaring at Korra, baring her teeth.

“What was that?!” she hissed. “You’re going to be in deep shit tomorrow, young lady, just you wait. Ten laps of the island will be your warm up!”

“You can tell me tomorrow then, I’m tired right now,” Korra informed Azula nonchalantly, walking away.

“Come back here right now if you don’t want it to be worse!” Azula ordered Korra, but it fell on deaf ears.

 _I’m not in the mood for Azula’s bitchy attitude_ , Korra thought, putting thoughts of what lay in store for her tomorrow in the recesses of her mind.


	36. Man to Man

_Three months after Korra’s Agni Kai with Shinji_

Mako shut his eyes, resting on the couch. It was a tiring job, being a waiter. He’d had nowhere to go after the guys had started up their classes, which were building momentum now, but none of them thankfully had any qualms with Mako staying until he got his life straightened out, so long as he helped pay rent. He spent his free time thinking about Kalla, and Korra, mostly. He always spent an hour every evening in his down time trying to think of ways to get Korra to accept him back into Kalla’s life.

But Mako had one big problem; he had hit a block. He had no official deadline to get his excuses straight, so he tried his best not to rush it, but that didn’t help, surprisingly. The former commander just couldn’t think of any new ways of putting it for the last two months so that Korra would find his plea irrefutable. It all sounded so bad in his head, so Mako was never happy with what he came up with. He didn’t want to shove his problems on other peoples' plates, even though Bolin had offered help if Mako needed it. Him and Bolin were back on their previously good terms without a doubt now, but for some reason, Mako just didn’t think Bolin would understand him.

Bolin was one of the most well-meaning guys Mako knew, and he had matured greatly since their fight, but he just wasn’t someone Mako was comfortable bouncing his thoughts off, even though Bolin was Kalla’s uncle.

“I should go see a therapist,” Mako murmured, rubbing his temples. “They’re a bit more expensive on Sundays, but I can’t go to one any other day of the week because of work.” 

It felt good to say stuff out loud, because so many things were going on inside his head. He had work six days a week, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm, minimum wage. There was a significant bump up in wages on Sunday, but that day was pure torture. There were more than enough people willing to accept the extra hassle, but Mako knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep it up after his third week.

Mako heard the door handle rattle. It was half nine on a Saturday night, when the others usually went out drinking, so he was a little surprised. Mako joined sometimes, but he was revolted at the smell of spirits now, and getting drunk brought on feelings that he thought he’d moved past, so he’d decided to try cut alcohol on a regular basis out of his life. Mako was pleasantly surprised when Ling came in through the door.

“Ling!” Mako greeted happily, but was too tired to get up. Then he tilted his head as Ling shut the door behind him, no-one else following behind.

“Sup, Mako,” Ling greeted, walking over and collapsing into the armchair opposite the couch.

“Where are the others?” Mako asked. “You guys always come home together.”

“They went to town, but I’m just not up for it,” Ling explained, yawning. “Sometimes you need to just relax quietly after a long day rather than get pissed and be hungover on your only free day. It’s a pity you don’t come along to watch us teach, I’m sure you’d be great fun to talk with during the breaks.”

“I don’t want to be riding off of your guys' coat-tails,” Mako told him. “I’m twenty-four, and I need to support myself, so thanks, but, no can do. How are the classes going now anyway?” Mako got up and opened a window, to relieve a bit of the stuffiness of the room, before going back to the couch.

“The classes are going really well,” Ling answered. “We’ve got three sets of students every day now, twenty for each one of us. So I’ve got to repeat the same thing over and over to sixty people every day, it’s the same for the others. We teach two hundred and forty people a day altogether. I love it, but it’s just a little overwhelming sometimes.”

“That’s about…” Mako trailed off, counting the numbers in his head. “That’s well over fourteen hundred people a week across the four of you!”

“It is,” Ling confirmed, running his hands through his bright blond hair. “We’re able to keep the cost low and still make a ton of cash, which is ideal. We should be able to move into a much nicer apartment by the end of the year at the latest, if not sooner, too.”

“That’s great news!” Mako exclaimed. “Although I’ve kinda gotten attached this place, funnily enough.”

“Me too,” Ling agreed. “You know, what I’m about to say is going to sound ridiculous, but… I’m actually a little tired of lavabending at the minute. I don’t want to quit it full stop, that’s out of the question, but… I’d just like a little break.”

“Your initial enthusiasm has burnt out,” Mako noted. “That’s completely normal.”

“Thank goodness,” Ling said, relieved, rubbing his eyes. “I just think that maybe a week off would suit me well, then I could grind for another while easily.”

“Yeah,” Mako said, thoughts about Kalla cluttering his head. Both him and Ling stayed quiet for the next few minutes as they dozed off a little bit.

“Any special ladies in your life?” Ling asked, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth.

“Not really,” Mako replied, as Kalla didn’t fit what Ling meant. “Yourself?”

“I’ve actually got a really funny story about something that happened recently. There was this really fit one,” Ling started. “Really nice, met her at a bar a couple of weeks ago, got off great. We were chatting away for about an hour, I thought I was hitting off really well with her.”

“What happened?” Mako asked, his mouth twitching. Ling’s stories always had the funniest and unexpected turns.

“Eventually, her friend comes over. I don’t what she was doing for the past hour, but the main thing is she’s back. Now guess what?” Ling continued.

“What?” Mako played along.

“She wasn’t fat!” Ling said, and Mako sniggered, but Ling wasn’t done yet; “She was good looking too, so I started chatting them both up, and they were responding pretty well. I was positive that I had them practically begging for me. But then, the worst possible thing happened.”

“Tell me,” Mako said, leaning closer.

“I popped the question if they wanted to go home with me. They get kind of awkward, but I take it as them being shy, which is fine. So I keep on going for it. But after I don’t go away, they tell me one tiny little thing they forgot to mention as I’ve been really flirty with them for the past while. They only find appropriate to tell me that they’re lesbians!” Ling revealed. “So I spent the best part of two hours trying to get with a couple of lesbians!”

Mako descended into a series of chuckles, buckling over, clutching his chest as he struggled for breath. It was the way that Ling delivered it that was so funny, the look of disappointment on his face when he relayed that they weren’t into men made it so much better.

“I mean, I’ve got no problem with it,” Ling continued, exasperated, but he was cracking up too, “but I couldn’t have made it clearer what my intentions were from the beginning! They’re way too good looking not to have guys coming up to them all the time, they should be able to tell!”

Mako laughed as Ling elaborated. Only a minute later, when he was genuinely having difficulty breathing, did he calm down.

“Oh...” Mako said, wiping a tear from his face. “That’s good!” He loved how open Ling was with how he felt, because he had the funniest ways of telling his stories. He could make an average story sound good, and a good story sound great.

“You ever had a proper girlfriend?” Ling asked after another few minutes of chatting. “I’m not going to judge you if you haven’t, I’ve never had one myself, 'cuz of the lavabending tag, y'know.”

Mako was about to reply with a short; “Yeah, but we broke up a long time ago,” but then he thought about it. He had been thinking about going to a therapist to talk about Kalla, but here was the friendliest and most open guy Mako knew sitting in front of him. Knowing Bolin, Mo and Nel, they probably wouldn’t be back for another while, so he had plenty of time.

“Actually,” Mako said, his happy mood rapidly disappearing, “yeah. But there’s something I kinda want to talk about. Something serious. It’s the reason I came back to Bolin in Zaofu, because things had gotten really dark. I’ve needed to say it for a while now.

“Something serious?” Ling asked, sitting up. A concerned look replaced the outgoing smile on his face, not minding the sudden mood change at all. “Yeah, sure bro, anything. What’s on your mind?”

“It’s okay if you laugh at the first part, because it was pretty funny for a while until the events of the last year or so,” Mako started.

“Nah, if it’s serious, I won’t laugh,” Ling promised. “I didn’t talk about things when I was younger because I was afraid people would laugh, and it destroyed me over the course of a few months inside. When I finally talked to someone, it made things so much better. I swore to help someone out if I can ever since. I swear on my mother that I won’t tell anyone.”

“Ok,” Mako said, and took a deep breath. He’d dealt with all the sadness already, but he needed to give the full backstory to really show how deep his problems went, to get a proper second opinion. “I’m going to go back over five years for this, when I was nineteen. I met Asami Sato, the now head of Future Industries, by pure chance. We started dating, and hit things off pretty well.”

“That’s some catch,” Ling complemented.

“Yeah,” Mako agreed, “it was. But one way or another, Korra, the Avatar kissed me while I was going out with Asami, and things got really messy. This was in the heat of the Equalist Movement. Asami found out, we broke up calmly, and I started dating Korra while I still managed to be friends with Asami. I know this is moving along quickly, but this first part isn’t really important.”

“It’s no bother, honestly,” Ling replied, paying one hundred percent of his attention.

“But after a little over six months of being with Korra, we broke up because of bigger events interfering. That’s all well and good, but then Asami kisses me when something really bad happens to her, and I start dating her again out of pity.

“But then,” Mako continued, “Korra loses her short-term memory and thinks we’re still together, kissing me right in front of Asami. After a lot of events, Korra gets it back, and we break up permanently a second time. Things are awkward for the next while, but we all make friends and the three of us could have a conversation without anything bad vibes.”

“What’s the part you said I could laugh at?” Ling asked. “I’m not really in the mood to be joking around, but I’m just wondering.”

“I’m getting to that now,” Mako said. “Korra comes back after three years, just in time to defeat Kuivera, the head of the former Earth Empire. That’s great, and we all get out happily. Then, Asami and Korra realise that they liked each other, as girlfriends. Bolin made fun of me for it, but I didn’t mind, it was just a little embarrassing to turn two women the other way.”

“Oh, ok,” Ling said. “But you’re implying that there’s more to it.”

“Yeah,” Mako said. “This is where it starts to go downhill. One night, Korra comes by into my apartment for a visit, and we start drinking. Korra is still with Asami at this moment and time, but we both get smashed drunk, and you know… Korra got pregnant that night. That was well over a year and a half by now. I don’t think either of us can claim to be perfect in this situation, we were equally responsible for what happened that night.” Mako was speaking really quickly now.

“Wait a minute,” Ling said, connected the dots. “You’re a… _dad_?! And Bolin’s an uncle?” He realised how much he had reacted there. “Sorry, that was out of-“

“It’s okay,” Mako excused him. “Bolin promised to keep it a secret, so it should come as a bit of a shock seeing as you’ve known me for nearly eight months now, and I’ve always been careful not to let it slip. But you remember the story of how Korra bloodbent the Triple Threats, don’t you? It was a huge scandal, so much so that she fled to the South Pole. She hid there for the best part of nine months, and had our kid. Her name is Kalla.” He was speaking a bit slower now.

“That’s a beautiful name,” Ling congratulated Mako.

“It is,” Mako agreed. “And she was extremely pretty when I held her for the first and only time. But things weren’t nearly as cut and dried as it might seem they were.”

“How come?” Ling asked.

“Korra never told me that the baby was mine, Asami told me that Korra was pregnant, leading to why they broke up. During the time when Korra was hiding, a lot of bad shit happened to me. I lost all my friends, and got into a bad drinking routine.”

“What about Bolin?” Ling asked. “You two have always… oh wait, you had that fight, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Mako told Ling. “It affected my behaviour around everyone I worked with, which resulted in me getting really bad depression.” Mako took a deep breath to compose himself, before continuing. “Meanwhile, as I’ve mentioned, Korra had our child. The scary thing was though, I didn’t remember the night at all.”

“Go on,” Ling said quietly.

“Ok…” Mako said, his breathing back to normal. “This is one of the most selfish things I’ve done in my life, easily. When I went to the South Pole on a witch-hunt, because I had to with of my job. I witnessed how enraged Korra got when her eyes glowed red. She was ready to kill-“ Mako snapped his fingers, “like that! She took away General Iroh’s bending as a punishment for harming Kalla, and then, after that, she put up a smokescreen of fog. She brought me face to face with her and presented Kalla to me. Please wait until I finish to say something!”

“Sure,” Ling agreed. He had his elbows on his knees, listening to every word as hard as he could.

“After all the stress she’d taken on of being witch-hunted and taking care of Kalla,” Mako continued, “I… I held our daughter in my hands and rejected her! I fucking rejected her!” Mako buried his head in his hands and started crying. He had thought that he’d gotten past the guilt after a few months in Ba Sing Sae, but he was wrong. He sobbed into his arms, unable to continue. Ling didn’t say anything for a few minutes until Mako lifted his head up with red, puffy eyes.

“You told me that you genuinely didn’t think Kalla was your daughter,” Ling stated warily. He definitely had an idea of what he wanted to say in his head, but he was clearly keeping it to himself until he got all the details. “But now, you’re speaking like you know it for a fact.”

“I went into the spirit world, to a place where I could regain my memory,” Mako explained, sniffling. “I know it sounds like a tall tale, but there’s no advantage to me lying here. Just please accept that as a fact.” Ling thought about it for a few seconds, before he spoke:

“I'll believe you, because we’re good friends” Ling told him. “And you’re right, there’s no advantage to you lying, unless you knew in the first place, and wanted to run away from the pressure of being a dad. But I trust you because you’ve earned my respect. You’ve never been one to back down from a hard job or responsibility.”

“Thank you,” Mako told Ling, sitting up and sighing.

“I want you to answer one question,” Ling told Mako. “This is one where I need the absolute truth, or else I can’t give you the advice you need.”

“I promise I’ll tell the truth,” Mako swore.

“You've had plenty of time to think about your next moves when it comes to Kalla, since Avatar Korra fought the United Forces ages ago,” Ling stated sternly. “What are they? Remember, don’t bullshit me, Mako. I want to help, but I also want the truth.”

“I really badly want to see Kalla again,” Mako began. “So badly. But Korra shouldered all the pressure of her life _and_ taking care of our baby herself. When Korra offered me a chance to be a part of her life, I refused it. I’ve tormented myself endlessly about it since, which is only fair. I will try desperately to be accepted as Kalla’s father figure no matter what, but in order to do that, I need Korra’s permission. I grew up harshly, and I will go to any length necessary to protect my daughter from that.”

Ling didn’t speak for another few seconds, before he asked; “How far?”

“I would lay down my life in an instant,” Mako responded immediately. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I’m part of her life.”

“Let’s say,” Ling suggested, “that Korra, in her rage, tries to kill you when you see her next, whenever that may be. What will you do?”

“I’d try to talk her out of it,” Mako said, “but if she’s absolute about it, then, yes, I will let her kill me. It’s what I deserve after what I did.” Ling thought deeply for four whole minutes before he spoke next;

“You’ve got your heart set the right way,” Ling started. “But you’re taking things out of proportion.”

“How?!” Mako asked, genuinely shocked.

“Would you really let Korra kill you?” Ling posed the question. “How much of a detrimental effect would that have on Kalla’s life? She might get bullied at school for not knowing her dad. Then, she would come home to her mother, and ask why she doesn’t have a dad. By that point, Korra would have definitely calmed down considerably by that point, and she would be miserable, torn apart mentally by it. She could see herself as no better than you, and kill herself as she would see it as the only proper punishment. Think about _that_ for a minute!”

“She...!” Mako started, then trailed off, unable to think of a response.

“On the flip side,” Ling continued, keeping a calm but steady voice, “Korra could get arrested for murder. I know that she’s the Avatar, but she has a conscious too! She’s human as well, that’s why she’s the mediator between our world and the spirit world! You’d be better experienced than me to judge that, but by the fact that she had a boyfriend, and girlfriend means that she feels emotions just the same as we do. But that also means that she recognises that there are potential consequences to every action. Am I wrong?”

“When she was a teenager, she was a bit hot headed,” Mako admitted. “But she has matured a lot since then. You’re right.”

“You’re both young people,” Ling stated. “You both know that you both make mistakes. But if she genuinely decides that you’re even not worthy of even living for one hot headed mistake, when you come back begging, then in no way is she capable of raising a child.”

“She’s the only one who deserves an opinion here!” Mako argued. “I don’t deserve jack shit!”

“Maybe you don’t,” Ling said passionately, standing up, “but one thing is very clear to me. You’re letting your emotions blindly control your decision making. Yes, you need to pour out your heart and grovel at her feet, but keep it real! This is about Kalla, not your and Korra’s relationship! You told me earlier that you and Korra broke up twice one way or another, so it’s evident to me that you two will never be a good couple! I don’t care how low you have to bow down to get Korra to forgive you, but make it happen one way or another!” He finished by pointing a finger at Mako.

Mako sat back, struggling to take in everything Ling had just told him. Beforehand, if Mako had been told that Ling could rattle him, he wouldn’t have paid any attention. But his close friend, who had just been spitting the truth, had changed his perspective. Mako had opened up to Ling because he had expected a soothing, gentle voice to agree with him, but Ling wasn’t the type of guy to watch his friends mess up in their life because he was too afraid to speak out.

No, Ling was a true friend. He was kind, nice and open to everyone most of the time, but when it came to serious matters, he helped out, with real advice. Mako may not have liked getting it shoved in his face, but they both knew that Ling was helping Mako, by telling him what he needed to hear. By telling Mako the truth.

“That’s…” Mako started after a minute of silence. “That’s… You’ve just been more straight with me tonight than I have been with myself for the last eight months.” He got up, and walked across to Ling. “Thank you, Ling. I don’t know how much that will benefit my daughter’s life, but I will pay it back to you some day. I promise.”

“Don’t sweat it, bro,” Ling responded, and was about to say something else, but Mako cut him off with a hug. Mako didn’t say anything for the next twenty seconds while Ling returned it, but the hug transmitted a thousand feelings of gratefulness. Ling just patted Mako slowly on the back, appreciating the moment.

When they separated, Mako clasped Ling’s hand in a manly handshake. Not the manly handshake of two tough men who could take on the world, but two men of character. Two men who would back each other to the death because they were true friends. Men who admitted they weren’t perfect, that they could be broken down mentally, but shouldered their responsibilities.

“Wanna get a drink?” Ling offered, his usual bright smile returning. “It’s on me, that was pretty heavy.”

“Sure,” Mako accepted, smiling meekly, his eyes still red. They broke the hand shake and walked out of the apartment, Ling locking the door behind them.

“If lavabending doesn’t work out,” Mako said, “you’d make a brilliant therapist. Honestly.”

“Maybe when I’m too old to be bending,” Ling agreed with a hearty laugh. “How about we drink to Kalla’s future, to the happy reunion with her father?”

“That’s perfect,” Mako agreed, and they made their way to the stairs, to which would lead to the exit, to which would lead the nearest bar. What happened after that is obvious enough.


	37. Blaze Like Fire

Korra leaned just outside the doors which Azula waited outside every morning. It was a sombre day, the clouds covering every inch of the normally bright blue sky. It was coming close to summer, Korra could tell. She had mastered the technique of conducting lightning to the most powerful bolt of nearly anyone on the island. Tatsuo and one or two others were capable of more, but Korra reckoned she could blow up an entire house now, if she really wanted to, with one strike. The training sessions recently had become a breeze, so Azula had finally decided to move on to the third of the four stages of Korra’s training.

Tatsuo walked up to the top of the stairs, greeting Korra with a short nod. Korra begrudgingly returned it, then faced the doors. The general treatment she’d been getting hadn’t changed since the fight with Shinji, except now maybe it was a tiny bit more subtle. People still resented and loathed her, including Tatsuo, but Korra had managed to tune out any glares. 

It did hurt, but Korra didn’t once dream of letting it show in front of them. She’d learnt that before the Agni Kai, Shinji had been a well-enough respected firebender on his way to becoming a combustion bender, but he’d ran off in shame after that fight. Somehow, she was partly to blame for that.

 _Serves the little wanker right_! Korra thought.

“Who do you resent most in the world?” Tatsuo asked suddenly as he stood in front of the doors. He inhaled deeply through his nose, then stared at the hole which he opened for Azula every morning. He exhaled sharply, a tiny yellow bullet zooming into the gap. It exploded inside, starting the mechanism which opened the doors.

“What?” Korra asked, blinking. “Why?” Her mind started to flood with numerous options, most of them from the island. But only one firebender fitted the bill. She didn’t like anyone on the island one bit, but to resent them was a bit strong. The man, the father of her child, though. She definitely resented him.

“You’ll have to think of it when you’re down there,” Tatsuo told her. “Just to get the ball rolling.” He led the way to the elevator, shutting the doors behind him. Although they wouldn’t be spending time together if either of them had their way, they were both a lot more relaxed than their first day together. The silent journey down on the elevator was more awkward than tense, compared to the only other time Korra had gone down here.

It was mid-day, the only time Azula had broken the strict training regime. There would be very little firebending today, according to Azula. They were going to meditate, supposedly. Korra welcomed the change, but she didn’t get ahead of herself; Azula’s training nearly always left her exhausted by the end, no matter how easy or difficult Korra found it. The water tribe girl fiddled with her Fire Nation bun as the elevator ground to a halt.

“Isn't this meant to be a volcano?” Korra asked out loud. She hadn’t meant to speak, but surprisingly, Tatsuo answered it without too much trouble.

“The last time it erupted was nearly two hundred years ago,” Tatsuo answered. “That was supposedly one of the worst natural disasters the Fire Nation had seen in its history, so it’s safe to say that the volcano is dormant.”

“Why is it so hot down here, then?” Korra asked.

“How the Master likes it,” he replied curtly, and started to walk forward very quickly. Korra followed, shaking her arms to work off some of the energy her anticipation had built up.

Tatsuo waited in front of the doors, and gestured for Korra go in without him. Korra strolled forward, not letting the chamber intimate her. She pushed them open, already finding it a bit hard to breathe with the temperature down here, and walked inside to Azula’s living quarters.

It was still as eerie as the last time Korra had been in there. Blue candles lit the room, and the tapestries even looked a tiny bit more demonic than before. It was the type of place the devil would call home. In the centre, Azula stood on the raised platform with a mannequin right behind her. She was in the middle of tying her hair back into a bun with just a hairband. Korra was amazed at how flexible Azula was even at nearly ninety years old.

 _You have to stay sharp to run this place, I suppose_ , Korra thought. Azula indicated with her head for Korra to come over, which the young mother did.

“What’s the dummy for?” Korra asked. She hadn’t been told anything the day before apart from when and where to be.

“I’ll tell you later,” Azula told Korra. “Right now, I want you to pick any random candle in the room, and double the flame's size. No questions, just do it.” Korra was a little confused, but she didn’t bother challenging it.

“Alright,” Korra said, and chose the closest candle to her right. She narrowed in on the tiny source of heat, getting a feel for its pulse. When she was confident that she had pinpointed it, she took a small breath in. The flame doubled in size immediately, but the colour changed from blue to orange. Korra tried to reverse the colour back, but she didn’t know where to start. After a few seconds, she looked back to Azula, expecting to be scolded. But surprisingly, she wasn’t.

“As I thought,” Azula commented. “Ignore that candle, and sit down opposite the mannequin. You’re going to be meditating for this session, on what you hate the most in the world.”

“What does that have to do with my training?” Korra asked as Azula blew the odd coloured candle out.

“Sit down in the Lotus position, or whatever position you like to meditate in, and I’ll tell you,” Azula informed Korra. Korra did as Azula ordered, getting comfortable opposite the mannequin.

“I’m ready,” Korra announced, rolling her shoulders back.

“Good,” Azula said, setting the tone. “Now, remember how I told you that this would be the third instalment of the four parts of your training? I’ll elaborate on that a bit. Creating a wall of fire is the first of three techniques combined in combustion bending.

“The abrasive, sudden eruption of power relates enormously to the explosion in combustion bending. The distance involved shows how far you can send a ‘bullet’ as we call it, although it’s more like a rocket. The explosion is prolonged until it hits it target.

“The second part,” Azula continued, walking around the platform with her hands behind her back, “is your training with lightning. That dealt with teaching you how to separate the negative and positive energies to use one to fuel your power. It also dealt with you learning how direct an incredibly dangerous current of energy, and use it to your advantage.”

“What’s the third part?” Korra asked. “Will it take as long as the other two to learn?”

“Depends solely on the person,” Azula answered, “but no, it won’t. Now tell me who you hate most in the world, and why.”

“Hold on,” Korra said, looking directly at Azula, “why should I do that?”

“Do you really need an explanation for everything?” Azula questioned.

“For something that personal, of course I do!” Korra exclaimed. She heard the elevator rumble as Tatsuo travelled back to the top of the mountain. Korra frowned, wondering why they were being left alone.

“What’s the matter now?” Azula demanded.

“Why isn’t anyone watching us?” Korra asked. “And don’t try to avoid my other question either.”

“These are my private quarters,” Azula answered. “I don’t let just anyone in here for a prolonged period of time. Only my students, Tatsuo, and others who have mastered combustion bending, may come down here. I declare them worthy of being combustion benders, and allow them to get the tattoo painted on. Tatsuo just left because he’s got plenty of other things to be doing.

“As for your first question,” she went on, “the third technique of combustion bending involves your brain. Outsiders observe combustion bending as firebending with your mind, but that’s closer to the truth than they realise. You need to harness your most prominent negative emotion, and project it out of your head in the form of firebending. That pure moment of concentrated hate is what combustion bending is. You could apply the same logic with love, probably, but combustion bending is a tool used for murder and destruction. If you go soft, you definitely won’t have the conviction to blow your opponent up. Any more questions before we start, to get them out of the way?”

“Yes,” Korra told her teacher after a moment’s hesitation. “First of all, how many people drop out, and when will you teach me how to create blue fire?”

“Barely any,” Azula told proudly Korra, holding her head up high. “We have an extremely strict filter that goes into selecting students. Being a talented firebender isn’t enough. They need to have a passion for the Fire Nation, an unwavering spirit of patriotism. Spies barely ever keep up the commitment, and we have crushed any that manage to make it through. Any so called 'drop outs' are actually kicked out because of bad behaviour, generally. Tatsuo enforces most of the disciplining.”

“What about Kenichi Shinoda?” Korra asked, remembering that he could apparently create blue fire.

“Kenichi Shinoda,” Azula repeated slowly. “Now _that’s_ a name I haven’t heard in a while. He was a disgrace of a student, always trying to one-up others. He claimed that he could defeat me in an Agni Kai, if I remember correctly. Ballsy, but could never back up his words. There were about sixty firebenders I could think of at the time who were stronger than him, including myself, of course.

“I humiliated him in a few seconds,” Azula relayed “but killing him was a mercy, so I severed off a few of his fingers to set an example of what happens to those who think they can kill me. He couldn’t even combustion bend, for crying out loud. Ran away with his tails between his legs.”

“Severed?” Korra repeated, taken aback. “That’s a bit-“

“No-one asked for your opinion,” Azula informed Korra bluntly. “As for blue fire, that will come after you complete this mental stage. Now, prepare yourself emotionally, it won’t be easy.” Korra opened her mouth to speak, but Azula kept going. “You’ve asked plenty of questions!”

“Fine,” Korra muttered, stretching a little before settling down. She opened her ears fully, ready to take in everything Azula told her.

“First of all,” Azula began, sitting down in a fold up chair. “Tell me who you hate most in the world, and why.”

“Do I have to-“ Korra began.

“Yes!” Azula demanded. “It is essential to your training! Close your eyes too!”

“Fine, a man called Mako,” Korra answered cautiously, but she decided to put a tiny bit of faith in Azula, given how much she rambled on about being a great teacher. Korra gently shut her eyelids. “He was the father of my daughter, but he rejected her.”

“That’s unforgivable,” Azula stated clearly, and she seemed to mean it. “Despicable. Only an evil man would do that.”

“Well, we were drunk when I got pregnant,” Korra replied, not sure why she felt defending Mako. “I genuinely don’t think he remembered the night. I sensed for his heartbeat, and it didn’t pick up when he told me that, meaning that he wasn't lying. It meant that he genuinely believed what he told me.”

“What type of job did he have?” Azula probed.

“I think,” Korra said, “a detective or undercover cop. I’m not too sure.”

“You can’t make it in those jobs if you’re not a good liar,” Azula countered. “You probably used that earthbending gimmick to sense for his heartbeat?”

“Pretty much,” Korra answered, shifting uncomfortably. She didn’t like where this conversation was going.

“I told Toph Beifong to her face that I was a platypus bear when I was just a teenager,” Azula bragged, “and she admitted that she couldn’t detect any change in my heartbeat. A trick to lying about something is believing the lie yourself to add emotion to it. He definitely knew at some point that he was the father, but convinced himself that he wasn’t. Do you want to know why?”

“Why?” Korra asked.

“He didn’t want to take on the responsibility of his own child!” Azula told Korra. “Your emotions have probably deceived you because you _want_ to believe that he was just confused. He might have had a little good credit in the bank if you knew him before. Did you know him before that?”

“He used to be my ex, but after we broke up we were still good friends,” Korra admitted, feeling a little nauseous.

“You see!” Azula exclaimed. “He was always bitter over you! I can see that you’re a very good-looking young woman, with a strong personality, but all he saw was your body! He wanted to get with you because all he cared about was how attractive you are! That’s hollow, and no man, or woman for that matter, deserves to be let off so easily after that. All he saw from Kalla was that she was extra baggage!”

Korra’s heart skipped a beat. Azula had just struck a deep chord with her. Korra had always tried to be optimistic about things, but Azula was giving her honest assessment of the situation she just learnt about. Korra had no reason to believe that Azula was being nice to her about it to help Korra feel better, because she berated Korra at every chance she got. It wouldn’t make sense for the old woman to suddenly start being kind.

“Well...” Korra said, as her opinion of Mako suddenly started to change. His good traits were being stripped away unceremoniously, and she started to view him in a different way.

“I want you to acknowledge the hurt he has caused you,” Azula ordered Korra. “Identify four different emotions that he caused you to feel about him when he rejected your daughter. I’m sure there are plenty more, but the four strongest.”

“I suppose…” Korra started, her eyes still shut. “Anger.”

“Not just anger,” Azula informed her. “Rage. Anger is passive, anger can be flipped with a simple treat to trigger dopamines, the happy hormones. Anger is temporary, and there’s no great cause behind it, just a momentary inconvenience.” Korra thought about this, and elaborated on it. She didn’t know too much about hormones and whatnot, but Azula was getting her message across perfectly.

“Furious!” Korra corrected herself. “I’m not angry, I’m furious with him!”

“That’s right,” Azula encouraged, standing up and putting a hand on Korra’s shoulder. “Don’t sugar-coat it. What else do you feel?”

“Distrust,” Korra said, searching deeper in herself. “Betrayal.” A drop of sweat trickled down her forehead.

“That’s it!” Azula whispered in Korra’s ear. “Don’t let up. Don’t give in to his venom!”

“Disgust!” Korra said after another few moments of hard thinking.

“The little wretch!” Azula added, spurring Korra on. But Korra didn’t say anything for another minute. “What’s wrong?” she asked eventually.

“I'm not sure if it’s healthy to be so negative about it,” Korra responded honestly, opening her eyes and letting out a heavy breath. “I don’t want to be toxic like… like him.”

“You’re not being toxic!” Azula urged her. “You’re facing the truth about a man who doesn’t give a damn about his own daughter. He's somehow managed to play himself as the victim, when it takes a woman and a man to create a baby! He’s got the easy part of being a parent, nothing near the hardship of you, the mother! Open your heart up, and tell me one more emotion.” Korra decided to do this.

“Anguish,” Korra identified after another few moments of deep reflection. “Anguish. Sadness. I can’t begin to describe how sad he made me feel. I cried so much!”

“That’s all very natural,” Azula said. “I bet that he couldn’t even begin to understand the pain you went through.”

“He always prioritised himself!” Korra added, her voice beginning to crack up. “Didn’t he even remember how hard it was without his parents!?”

“What happened to his parents?” Azula asked, a strange tone in her voice.

“He only had his brother since they were eight, for crying out loud!” Korra shouted. Tears started to creep out of her eyes.

“Compose yourself, Korra!” Azula demanded. “His vileness still clings onto you. Cast it off!” It would’ve sounded a bit cheesy, but Korra clung on to every word. Her mind began to place Mako in the lowest category of people she knew. The place where her uncle and Tokuga resided. But that wasn’t enough. Her undying love for Kalla trampled on him, until Mako was slowly seeping towards rock bottom. She wiped her eyes and swallowed the mucus building in her throat.

“I’m sorry,” Korra apologised, her different views starting to click into place.

“Don’t apologise to me,” Azula said, “recognise that the only injustice done was from Mako to yourself. Or if that doesn’t sink in, think of the injustice done to Kalla.”

That really hit home. Korra started to breath heavier and heavier, struggling to contain the malice she felt towards Mako. She wanted to let her fury go wild. She felt Vaatu rising up within her, climbing on Raava to get higher and higher. She resisted his temptation though.

 _I won’t let anyone manipulate me anymore_! she vowed mentally, but still, the hate of Mako grew. It grew bigger and bigger. Somehow, Azula knew this.

“Fixate on how he hurt you!” Azula commanded, shouting. “Don’t hold back! Let it flare up! Be like fire! Latch onto it and grow! Let your source of power grow like a fire burns wood. _Blaze like fire_!”

Korra opened her eyes, her blood boiling, and for a moment, just a moment, she thought that she saw Mako’s face on the dummy. All of her hate focused on that.

“YOU DIRTY BASTARD!” Korra screamed, the turbulent candles suddenly flaring up into ferocious flames. She wanted the head to sizzle up in flames, dead, and her emotions took over for that brief second. A bullet of fire screamed out of her forehead and implanted itself into where the dummy’s heart would be. It didn’t blow up on impact, so Korra urged from her all heart for it to erupt violently.

It exploded, immediately tearing open a hole in the mannequin’s chest and flinging it across the room. It crashed into the wall, smashing a vase on impact. Korra stared at it for a moment, confused, then she realised what she had just accomplished.

“I can… I can combustion bend!” she exclaimed emptily, exhausted.

“You can,” Azula backed Korra up, coming out from behind a pillar. She didn’t seem surprised though. “I want you to light a fire in your palm now. Think of your intense hatred of Mako when letting the flame burn. Don’t say anything, just do it.”

Korra wanted to snap back sharply in her current mood, but she decided to hold it in and just listen to Azula. He held out her palm and lit a fire, using her emotion as well to burn the chi. To her surprise, a blue flame appeared instead of an orange one.

“What’s going on?” Korra asked, confused, but still very angry. She was a little bit irritated by everything at that very moment and time.

“You’ve unlocked perfect combustion, which is also commonly referred to as blue flames,” Azula congratulated her, “and with that, you can now combustion bend. We’ll start training tomorrow for actual combustion bending. This took about two hours less than expected, I’m surprised.”

“Too much of a hit to your ego to say you’re impressed?” Korra sneered, standing up, but she wobbled uncertainly directly after she said that. She clumsily made her way over to one of the pillars and tried to regain her balance.

“It can take a lot out of you,” Azula explained. “You have to build up stamina for quite a while before you can combustion bend without any repercussions.”

“How?” Korra asked, her vision a little bit blurry.

“Hmm?” Azula asked.

“How come I couldn’t unlock blue fire before?” Korra asked, slouching her back against the pillar for support. “I was always angry before, even if I didn’t realise it.”

“Unless you are born with it, like I was, which is very rare,” Azula informed Korra, “you need a special type of drug, that only Tatsuo and I know how to make, to lift you off the ground.” A moment or two passed before Korra realised what this meant.

“You drugged my food this morning?!” Korra interrogated.

“We’ve drugged it every morning,” Azula revealed calmly, looking at her fingers. “Otherwise the training would’ve taken two years at the very minimum, even though you’re the Avatar. I don’t feel like waiting that long, and besides, the side effects are minimal for what we’ve been giving you most days, which are just keeps your concentration levels up. What we gave you today was just to make you more susceptible to emotion, and I have to say, it worked a treat.”

“What are the side effects!?” Korra demanded.

“For what you had today, none, because you’ve only had it once,” Azula stated without a care in the world. “For what we give you normally, there’s an extremely low risk among women to become infertile. But you’ve already had a child, so it shouldn’t bother you too much.”

“INFERTILE?!” Korra repeated, astounded. She tried to march over to Azula, but fell on her knees. She looked up weakly at her master.

“Yes,” Azula told her, walking up to Korra. “We won’t drug your food anymore, if it’s worth anything. There are no drugs that we know off that don’t interfere with the combustion process and help boost your performance levels. There’s two more things I need to say to you, before you head back to bed as well.”

“Stop drugging my food, and what are they?” Korra asked, dreading what was coming next.

“You need to make a commitment to not forgiving Mako,” Azula told her. “Otherwise, you will lose your conviction when combustion bending.”

As soon as Korra’s ears heard Mako’s name, she instantly became triggered. She had been feeling drained a moment ago, but now the thought of him made her blood boil so much that she somehow found the energy to stand up again. She groggily regarded Azula as the old lady continued;

“If you let go off your anger, you won’t feel the primal urge to blow him up,” Azula explained. “Your ability of perfect combustion will likely fade too.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Korra promised Azula, with no intention of breaking that promise anytime soon. “I suppose I have to uphold my end of the deal now. Will I give you your firebending back right now, seeing as I’ve learnt to combustion bend?”

“You’re no combustion bender just yet!” Azula told her, then pointed to the tattoo on her head. “Until you get this, which means you’ve been deemed worthy by a true master, you will not claim to be a combustion bender!”

“But…” Korra said, making sure that she wasn’t missing anything, “that means you don’t get your bending back yet.”

“People only judged by what they accomplished when they’re gone,” Azula declared, “and when you eventually go back to the outside world, everyone will know that you were taught by me, one way or another. I would much rather die without my firebending with a good reputation, rather than everyone remembering me as the shoddy teacher who barely taught the Avatar how to combustion bend.” Azula crossed her arms defiantly.

Korra left the offer open for another few seconds, staring at Azula, stupefied. But Azula didn’t take it, so she asked the one remaining question on her mind; “Is there any way to ensure that my combustion bending never fades?”

“There is one,” Azula told Korra. “But I doubt you’re capable of it.”

“Tell me!” Korra nearly ordered.

“You won’t like it,” Azula warned, hinting that it was bad.

“I don’t care!” Korra declared, raising her voice. “Tell me! It’s no harm to just tell me!”

“Very well,” Azula relented, rolling her eyes. “In my case, Zuko hasn’t really ceased to torment me, so my grudge still holds very strong.”

“Zuko?” Korra repeated. “You mean, Fire Lord Zuko?”

“Yes,” Azula answered. Then she dropped the bomb;

“The only way to cement your ability of perfect combustion and combustion bending for the rest of your life, is to kill the one who you first despised to have your vengeance satisfied permanently.”


	38. Combustion Bending

“Get down into the plank position and hold it for four minutes! Now!” Azula ordered Korra.

“Can I at least get something soft to put my arms on?” Korra asked, exhausted. It was a warm evening. “It’s cutting into my skin really bad when I hold it for more than thirty seconds.”

“Stop complaining!” Azula shouted, her voice hoarse from giving out. “It was your decision to come off of the drugs four months ago, and all you’ve done in the meantime is whinge! We’re extremely close to the end now anyway, just keep your tattoo in mind! That’s what you’ve been training here for, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Korra complied, and got into the shape for plank slowly. Ever since she’d come off the drugs, her training had become considerably harder. She barely remembered her training with them, what seemed like a happy time, where she could train six hours a day without getting too fed up. Now she struggled to keep up after half an hour. Azula wasn’t going easy one bit either.

“Give me one reason why we work so much on bodyweight exercises!” Azula barked, hands on her hips.

“Good core strength,” Korra mumbled, “is-“

“What!?” Azula screamed. “Speak up for an elderly lady!”

“GOOD CORE STRENGTH,” Korra repeated, shouting, “HELPS YOU BREATH EASIER WHEN EXERCISING! THEREFORE, YOU CAN FURTHER BUILD ON THE FOUNDATION OF FIREBENDING, WHICH COMES FROM BREATHING!” Her outburst left Korra struggling to hold her shape perfectly as she was a little short of oxygen. Azula didn’t get annoyed though, thankfully.

“Good,” Azula told her. She abruptly stopped talking, which made the seconds tick by painfully slower than the snail’s pace they were already going at. Korra bared her teeth as the burning sensation picked up. She let out a few grunts in between her sharp breathing, barely able to keep track of her surroundings.

“Two minutes to go,” Azula announced after what felt like an eternity.

 _How can that have only been two minutes_?! Korra thought, but was interrupted by Azula.

“Blow up that rock!” Azula demanded out of the blue, pointing at a designated rock Korra had erected earlier for shooting practice. It was the one thing where Azula had ever let Korra bend any element other than fire, creating targets with rocks.

“Yes!” Korra replied, jumping up. This was one of Azula’s many cruel training exercises, where she would interrupt Korra suddenly with the order to combustion bend at something. Azula did it so cleverly that Korra would always be hoping for a sudden break, even after four intense months. It was brutal, but the point of it was to 'build discipline' as Azula had put it.

Korra closed her eyes, inhaling sharply through her nose. She made sure that her lips were sealed shut, tensing all the muscles in her body at once. As she inhaled, she lifted her chest, feeling the chi from her stomach rising up. As it seeped up around her head, Korra thought of Mako, the man she hated with a passion that only matched her love for Kalla. She condensed all her hate and chi into a tiny compression of willpower, which she then converted to materialism with firebending. Korra opened the imaginary third eye on her forehead, a gate with a lock that bulging. She focused on the hate, which was as clear as day, then opened her normal eyes.

The light-yellow bullet shot out of Korra’s forehead, blitzing towards the target rock. Just before it made contact, Korra released the valve on the compression by exhaling, and as she did that, let her emotion blossom. The bullet exploded, shattering the rock and sending shards flying into the sea. The resulting shockwave sent Korra’s long hair, which she’d meant to cut, rippling back. The explosion was strong enough to destroy three mechasuits in one go.

Korra rubbed her real eyes, sealing off the imaginary one in her forehead too. The way Azula had instructed her to combustion bend was to hold in all your resentment in your mind, never opening up about it. Only when you opened your third eye, should all the pent-up rage follow. They had talked about this while opening her fire chakra, which dealt with willpower, and was blocked by shame. It had taken a little bit of convincing, but Azula had shown Korra that her shame came from Kalla’s father being so evil, and her willpower was to make everything right in killing Mako.

 _If only it were that easy_ , Korra thought. She told Azula that she was ready to kill Mako, but in her heart, she wasn’t sure if that was a step she could take just yet. It was the same small string of self-restraint that kept her from killing Shinji, that she tried so hard to get rid of, but it wouldn’t stop clinging to her. She wasn’t sure that she could truly command this power how Azula told her to. There was one other big problem too.

Korra couldn’t talk to Raava at all anymore. She sensed Vaatu becoming a cloak around Raava, and preventing Korra from going into the Avatar State through Raava. Vaatu was much more prominent now, and she felt that if she wanted to, she could talk to him freely. It wasn't like before where she would get snippets, but now Vaatu was straining to be released. Every time she combustion bent, she felt his presence thicken. It was worrying, but Korra decided to leave it be unless it was clear that it wouldn’t fix itself.

“You’ve had no issue with the distance whatsoever,” Azula remarked, not able to shout nearly as loud as she had at the beginning. “Usually, it would take a year for someone who’s just learnt how to combustion bend to get the distance nailed down, before they even begin to consider power.”

“Has that impressed you?” Korra asked, partially fed up. She understood how important discipline to combustion bending was, as she’d very nearly blown off a few of her limbs at the start, so she took all of the verbal abuse and snide comments that came when Azula was conducting her training, but other than that, Korra wasn’t afraid to chat back to her. But the response she got startled her.

“I’ll admit, I am,” Azula confessed. “I’ve done my hardest to put you under pressure, but you’ve taken to it like a duck to water. When I told you six months at the very start, I was only saying that so I wouldn’t deter you. But I wasn’t far off, surprisingly.”

“How long were you thinking?” Korra asked, genuinely shocked, but she never let any real emotional weakness show in front of Azula, because she generally pounced on it and tore Korra apart verbally with it.

“With everything taken into account, a year and a half was optimistic,” Azula revealed. “We don’t drug everyone - it’s not affordable - so it would take the average talented, committed firebender six years, two or three spent on combustion bending alone.”

“You’re lucky that I didn’t lose my fertility,” Korra jibed. Her periods hadn’t changed the entire time she had been on the island, Korra she assumed that she was safe. On the flip side, Korra had realised how much those drugs had benefited her, and while it was immoral to be using performance-enhancing drugs, she was secretly grateful for how many dark hours they’d helped her get through.

“I’m lucky?” Azula replied. “You’re the only one who’s lucky, sweetheart. I told you out of the good of my heart.”

“Like you have one,” Korra sneered. Their conversations generally weren’t very friendly.

“I could’ve had you assassinated whenever I wanted,” Azula reminded her. “You barely even realised that we sedated you every full moon!”

“You don’t need much movement for combustion bending,” Korra countered bitterly. “Bloodbending couldn’t have done much.”

“It’s hardly too difficult to turn us the other way and then trap us in earth, is it?” Azula responded. Korra was about to reply, but decided to shut her mouth before Azula really embarrassed her. Azula won ninety percent of their arguments on a bad day, ninety-five on a normal day.

A few moments of a tense silence passed, before Azula clapped her hands. Korra’s body shuddered at the thought of more exercise, but she kept in mind that her goal wasn’t too far off.

“I need to make sure that you know all your rules,” Azula said. “So we’re not going to be doing any physical exercise at the minute.” Korra silently rejoiced at the announcement, although she kept the exact same expression as before, so it seemed like she didn’t care.

“Whatever,” Korra said. “I had nothing better to do in my free time than learn it off.”

“Shouldn’t have a problem then,” Azula said. “Describe to me the strengths and weaknesses of a combustion bender, in combat, let’s say.”

“Easy,” Korra said. “The main strength of a combustion bender is their will. A combustion bender can only fuel their power with willpower, so if there is no significant reason or award behind them combustion bending, they can’t use their power to their full ability. If their freedom is something they desperately crave, for an example, then locking them up with the promise of getting out will fuel their power.”

“I meant, how can disable one’s ability to combustion bend?” Azula rephrased.

“Oh,” Korra realised. “If you can somehow manage to stun them, the sudden wave of nerves will confuse them, and keep them from solely thinking about blowing you up. That’s how most combustion benders die, by it backfiring and exploding right in front of them. Another way to defeat them, or at least delay them, is to hold someone close to them as a hostage in their line of fire. That way they’ll hold back, and won’t have the conviction needed to blow you up with the hostage.”

“That is correct,” Azula admitted. “Now, I want you to send your most powerful blast into the ocean from here. Don’t hold back in the slightest, I’ll give you a proper break after. I want you to really let it rip.”

“You’ve pulled that move before,” Korra reminded her. “You made me do ninety pull-ups in seven minutes, remember?”

“No,” Azula replied with mock innocence.

“Well I do,” Korra responded.

“Well, I can guarantee that you’ll be begging for me to go easy after if you keep this up,” Azula told Korra. Korra wiped a few strands of hair out of her face, rolling her eyes, and faced the sea. But before she even began to breathe in, she heard Azula _tsk._

“What is it?!” Korra snapped, twisting around.

“You’re always meddling with your hair,” Azula commented. “It’s going to reach your waist soon. You should really shave it off, it’s caused nothing but trouble the entire time you’ve been here.” Korra nearly replied with a 'fuck-off', but caught herself just in time, knowing fully well what the punishment for that would be horrible.

“I’ll think about it,” she informed Azula, then faced the ocean. She was much more resilient now, able to combustion bend twenty to thirty times in a day, compared to being drained the first time she did it. Korra let her arms fall down by her side loosely, and imagined Mako’s face among the waves.

 _The bastard,_ she thought, emphasising over and over again in her mind how evil he was. She remembered everything bad he’d ever done to her, villainising him as much as she could. Korra undid the chain that bound her imaginary third eye, which would at some point be real when she got her tattoo. She snarled, her chi building up in one spot as the father of her daughter crowded her thoughts completely. Korra tensed her body up, inhaling deeply, this time keeping her normal eyes open. She fixated on the point where she thought the foam kind of resembled his features, mentally screaming at it.

A small bullet of compressed air and fire bolted out of her forehead. It crossed the sixty-five metres in between Korra and the spot she was focusing on in a second and a half. Just before it hit the surface, she exhaled sharply. It exploded, immediately evaporating the water and everything else in the surrounding twenty metres in every direction. It created a sizeable crater in the water, before the sea caved in on itself. The vapour reached both Azula and Korra, sprinkling them with salt water.

 _There’s definitely a relation to airbending_ there, Korra confirmed, although she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

“How that?” Korra asked, holding out her hands and turning back to Azula as she calmed down once more.

“Send a fifteen metre by ten metre column of fire into the ocean,” Azula ordered immediately. Korra didn’t say anything, but just faced the left end of the arena. She put all her weight on her right leg, stretching her left as far as she could while still keeping her sole on the ground. Korra reached out to her left boot with her index and middle fingers pointed out on both hands, then brought them gracefully around in a rainbow arc, reaching as far as she could. As her fingers passed over her head, blue flame trailed after them.

A roaring column of blue fire was unleashed from her fingers as she touched the ground, finishing her arc. It rumbled towards the spot which was still chopping from Korra’s other shot. It crashed violently into the waves, throwing up water, before sizzling out after a long enough wrestle.

Azula muttered something inaudible, which was very unusual of her, given how she liked bossing people around, but Korra didn’t bother bringing it up when she walked up to Azula.

“Huge break, wasn’t it,” Korra jibed, hands on her hips.

“I think it’s time,” Azula said, ignoring Korra’s comment. “It’s time.”

“Time for me to get my tattoo?” Korra joked, trying to hide the fact she was breathing quite heavily.

“I think…” Azula said hesitantly, “yes, I think it is.”

Korra stayed looking at Azula the same way as before, until what Azula’s words meant hit her. She blinked, not believing her ears, and switched her attention on fully.

“Say again?” Korra requested.

“It’s time to get your tattoo,” Azula reiterated. “The tattoo that lets everyone know that you’re a combustion bender.”

“Wait… I only meant that as a joke,” Korra explained, then realised what she’d just said. “Wait, no, what I meant was… Can you say that again?”

Instead, Korra just received a hard slap on the cheek, which stung a lot hard than Korra would’ve expected from a ninety-year-old woman.

“Listen, for fuck's sake!” Azula scolded her, but Korra suddenly couldn’t be disappointed. Anticipation started to build up in her chest, and she couldn’t stop a wide grin from cheek to cheek forming.

“Sorry,” Korra apologised, although the grin stayed on her face. Now that she was finally at the end, she could admit that it had been torture, not only physically but also socially. She hadn’t had any fun the entire time, and barely any nice conversations at all. She could probably count them all on her fingers.

“If that’s the attitude you’re going to be showing,” Azula threatened, “I’d be very inclined to take back what I just said!”

“I’m sorry, Master Azula!” Korra corrected herself. She bowed to Azula, trying to wipe the smile off of her face, but the edges of her mouth still tugged to curl upwards.

“We’ll get it done tomorrow,” Azula declared, then whistled. Korra looked up, and saw Tatsuo fly out from his hiding spot 100 metres away. He landed gracefully, although there was a scowl on his face, even though he couldn’t have possibly heard them talking from that distance.

“Master,” he greeted Azula, bowing. The first time Korra had met Azula with Tatsuo, she had thought it was a bit over-the-top how submissive he had been, but she was used to it now.

“We need two combustion benders to witness you combustion bend to prove that you’re worthy of your tattoo,” Azula explained to Korra. “Although you just saw it there, didn’t you, Tatsuo?”

“I could’ve been anyone passing by,” Tatsuo protested stubbornly. “She can do it again, surely.”

“No problem,” Korra told Tatsuo smugly, turning around to face the ocean one more time. She didn’t give it too much thought, as everyone on the island wanted her gone for being water-tribe, but she was a little surprised to see Tatsuo challenging Azula. He was probably hoping for her to mess up, which would be a miracle in his eyes.

 _Not going to let that happen_ , Korra thought, culling her excited feelings. When she felt no emotion in herself at all, she vividly imagined Mako’s face, jeering at her.

 _I’d get rid of that baby if I got the chance_ , his voice echoed around her head, even though he’d never actually said that. She built up her resentment as her chi drifted upwards from her stomach to her head. Him holding Kalla like she was a bomb came to the forefront of her mind, and that fuelled her even more. Korra despised him more than anything in the world.

 _You’ll never lay your filthy hands on my daughter again,_ she vowed, taking in a deep breath through her nose. She tensed up her body, pinpointing her fury at a random wave.

The bullet flashed out of Korra’s forehead, reaching the water even quicker this time. A loud boom was heard all across the island as Korra evaporated another large portion of water with combustion bending. This was a little further away this time, so it didn’t sprinkle her. She took in large deep, breaths to calm herself down, locking away her rage again. She heard Tatsuo sigh behind her.

“Well?” she asked, turning back to face them. “What do you think?”

Tatsuo just stood there with a grimace, glaring at her, before he relented, his shoulders sagging. “Very well,” he agreed, knowing he was giving Korra the satisfaction of beating him. “You uphold your side of the deal first, then I’ll tattoo it on.”

“Wait, no,” Korra disagreed. “If I do that, then you won’t have to give me my tattoo!”

“Nonsense,” Tatsuo argued back. “I’m the artist, only I can give you the tattoo! It doesn’t actually impair your ability to combustion bend if you don’t have the tattoo!”

“It’s just so that I’m guaranteed that you can’t weasel out!” Korra retorted, raising her voice. “I can’t escape the island anyway if you guys turn on me, we’re way too far from the mainland to travel without a boat. There’s no disadvantage for you here, except maybe an extra three hours on top of the thirty years you’ve waited so far!”

“Don’t shout about it so much!” Tatsuo hissed, clenching his fists. Him and Korra were ready to go further with their argument, but then, Azula surprised them both.

“I agree with her,” Azula stated, resulting in shocked looks from both Tatsuo and Korra. They broke their stare to look at her oddly.

“But, but, but-“ Tatsuo stuttered. “You’re siding with her?”

“Really?” Korra asked as well.

“You’re not officially a graduate of mine until you get your tattoo,” Azula stated. “And therefore, I wouldn’t have officially taught you combustion bending. I don't remember exactly what we agreed on, but the concept was obvious.”

“But it’s your firebending!” Tatsuo cried, throwing his hands out in confusion, disregarding how he told Korra to be quiet a few seconds ago. “Why would you let her… convince you into this?” Tatsuo definitely wanted to say a different word than ‘convince’, but had too much respect for Azula to go that far.

“What’s the matter with you?” Azula asked. “You usually never question me!”

“It’s just… well…” Tatsuo trailed off, then bit his lip. “As you wish, Master.”

“Good,” Azula said. “Now get everything ready for tomorrow. The application of the tattoo will begin at dawn. You are dismissed, Tatsuo.”

“Yes, Master,” Tatsuo complied, shooting Korra a dirty look, then storming off. He knew just as well as Korra how stubborn Azula was when the old woman put her heart into it. Thankfully, out of the many conversations where it hasn't benefited Korra, the trait came good for the Avatar this one time it mattered.

“Thank you, Master Azula,” Korra said. “To be honest, I’m a little… surprised.”

“Don’t go expecting it on a regular basis,” Azula told Korra snidely. “There’s usually a public ceremony to welcome a new combustion bender into our ranks, but you’re not getting one.”

“How come?” Korra asked, feeling slightly offended.

“You have no friends here,” Azula told her bluntly. “I don’t know where you got the illusion that you do, but it’s false. I saw the glares back when you fought Shinji Nakemura all those months ago, and to be honest, I’m very surprised that that’s the only Agni Kai you’ve gotten into. Perhaps my subordinates are going soft.”

“I get your point,” Korra started, “but I thought that no-one here was meant to have friends. That’s why barely anyone ever talks outside.”

“There’s a mutual respect between everyone who is dedicated to the program,” Azula said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “But you’re not part of the program, so they have no reason to respect you.”

“I think another way of putting that is that you’re all incredibly racist here,” Korra countered. “I’m the only black person, anyone who has anything close to my skin tone is just tanned.”

“We’re patriotic,” Azula put it differently, but she was essentially giving Korra the middle finger. “Your training is done; you can go home now. There’s no more training today.”

Korra _harrumphed_ , and started to walk back home. She was used to it so much that it honestly didn’t bother her too much that Azula was being open with it, all the rest of the islanders were on a daily basis. It was just one of those things she had to put her pride in the rear view for the sake of being practical.

“One final thing,” Azula called out. Korra turned around, exasperated. She wasn’t prepared to give whatever Azula had to say much attention, but as the old lady proposed her idea to Korra, Korra couldn’t help but immediately take an interest. She pretended not to care too much though, as she was still annoyed at Azula.

“You just admitted to me that no-one likes me,” Korra reminded her. “Why would you go making an offer like this even though our deal will be fulfilled tomorrow?”

“Sleep on it,” Azula advised. “We can flesh everything out tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Korra agreed nonchalantly. But as she walked home, the temptation of the offer burned in her gut. After an hour or so of lying in bed and solely considering it, Korra decided that she certainly was interested. She wasn’t committing to anything just yet, as Azula hadn’t given a reason as to why she wanted to do it, but Korra figured there was no harm in just a conversation.

* * *

  
Korra pursed her lips, sitting in Azula’s chamber for the third time ever. She’d cut her hair back to shoulder-length, wondering how long she had really been on the island, since Azula wasn’t saying a word for whatever reason. Korra had begun to believe that Azula didn’t know herself.

Korra’s leg jiggled uncontrollably as she waited outside the door hidden just to the side of the dim blue chamber, because of two reasons. One, she usually had training at this time, so her body naturally built up energy. But the second was that she had something to look forward to today. Nearly every other day, it had the exact same get up, eat, rest, eat, train, with essentially no change to the routine. She could never go outside comfortably because she couldn’t relax with other people constantly sending her dirty looks, so that instantly ruled out a lot.

“Come in,” Tatsuo beckoned suddenly, opening the wooden door. Korra practically shot up, but Tatsuo wasn’t in nearly as good as a mood. “Don’t fuckin' rub it in just because you’re a fast learner!”

“Sorry,” she apologised humbly, her head down. She wasn’t as stupid to purposely aggravate the person who was about to put a detailed tattoo on her forehead. Korra followed him into the room quietly, where there was a rough slab of rock in the middle of a very sparse room. It had literally been hollowed out of the rock, with the bare equipment necessary for a tattoo artist beside a chair by the slab of rock. There was a lamp positioned just above where Korra was supposed to put her head.

“Hello, Korra,” Azula greeted graciously, looking up from the book she was reading. She had a comfy chair to sit on, of course, and a candle on a drawer to help her see. “Have you considered my offer?”

“You’re in a very good mood today,” Korra pointed out, immediately noticing how Azula used her first name. “Should I get a picture to put in the history books?”

“How dare you!?” Tatsuo growled, ready to punch Korra. “Show a bit of respect for the Master!”

“It’s okay, Tatsuo,” Azula told him, with a… _kind_ smile on her face? “Nothing could possibly ruin my day today.”

Maybe if you were told that every child an orphanage got adopted, Korra joked in her head, but didn’t say it out loud when she replied; “I’m going to think about it while Tatsuo's putting the tattoo on, but it’s definitely worth discussing.”

“What’s this?” Tatsuo demanded from Korra.

“You’ve already got enough on your plate, I don’t think it’s worth your time bothering you with this,” Azula answered. “It was hard enough for you to fit this into your day, so I thought I’d spare you the trouble. You know it can’t be too important if I ran it by her and not you. You’re my right-hand man, after all.”

Tatsuo exhaled heavily, frustrated, through his nose, but trusted his superior on this one. He sat down in his chair, tidying his tools up a little bit more. Korra lay down on the slab, taking the pair of sunglasses that lay beside all of Tatsuo’s tools. She put them on and laid her head back, indicating that she was ready.

Korra had originally had her worries about giving Tatsuo a free target to pierce through in her forehead, but realised that if Azula wanted her dead, they would’ve killed her long ago. Even if they had wanted to get Azula’s firebending back and then kill her, they could’ve definitely talked Korra into her giving Azula’s bending back first, then getting the tattoo.

It was an incredibly long, boring job, especially for Korra, as she just had to lie there still, not moving. Tatsuo first traced an outline of the tattoo, taking his time to get every detail right. His garlic breath reeked, but Korra just reminded herself that she could be breaking a sweat training every time she felt like gagging because of it. Azula didn’t say anything at all, just looking up from her book occasionally.

Korra swore that Tatsuo was digging the needle deeper than he had to when he got to the main part of outlining. She wanted to scream, but made do with digging her fingers into the slab she was lying on.

After what felt like a full day, Tatsuo finally stood up and clapped his hands, satisfied with his work. Korra didn’t move though, unsure if this tediously slow and painful procedure was done with. She regarded him warily, as if he was going to spring something on her.

“Another fine job, if I do say so myself,” Tatsuo stated proudly, stretching after a long period of time hunched over. “No heavy exercise for the next three days, or, if possible, no exercise at all, Avatar. To avoid sweating.”

“Let me see,” Azula said, standing up. Korra sat up, and she took off her sunglasses.

“Is it ok?” the twenty-three-year-old asked, worried at the thought of having to redo it.

“It’s perfect,” Azula commented. “Tatsuo, well done. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” Tatsuo said, but he beamed at the praise.

“Thank you, Tatsuo,” Korra said, but all her did was nod at her to acknowledge it.

“Here’s what you look like,” Azula said, holding out a pocket mirror. Korra got up and took it. She flipped it open, peering at her forehead.

 _Spirits, I forgot how ugly it would look_! was Korra’s first thought. _I’ve grown used to it because I see a blue one on Azula’s forehead every day, but… that’s really not nice._

The young Avatar had a eye with a red pupil in the middle of her forehead, with three thin stripes coming out either side. Now that she thought of it, every female combustion bender had this version of the tattoo, while the lines on the men’s were much thicker and straighter.

“They’re not meant to look pretty,” Azula commented dryly, and knelt down, rubbing her hands in anticipation. “Now, it’s time for you to uphold your end of the deal.”

“Yes, of course!” Korra realised, snapping her attention back to Azula. She shut the mirror, gently placing it on the ground, and walked over to Azula. She wiggled her limbs, expelling a little bit of laziness out of them. She stepped forward in front of Azula, taking long, deep breaths.

Korra’s mind naturally thought about making a break for it now, but there was no way Korra was going to consider that. She wasn’t a snake, who would just leave as soon as she had to uphold her end of the deal, but Azula had cleverly placed a little insurance in Korra just in case. The offer she’d made yesterday was too tempting to turn down for Korra, and Azula knew that. Azula stared right up at Korra as the Avatar placed her thumb on Azula’s forehead. She reached for Raava deep down inside her.

But for some reason, it wouldn’t come.

 _Not now_! Korra thought urgently as Raava’s spirit, for whatever reason, resisted the summoning. Korra frowned, putting in more effort than was normally necessary. But all that wanted to come up was Vaatu. Korra panicked, cursing herself for not recognising the signs of what could happen when she couldn’t speak to Raava before. She tried harder and harder to go into the Avatar State through Raava, but as twenty seconds passed, still, nothing came. She felt the other two getting suspicious.

“What’s wrong?” Tatsuo asked. “Why haven’t you started?”

“It takes a minute or so to get ready,” Korra lied, worry creeping into her voice. She heard Azula make some kind of disapproving sound; she clearly didn’t buy what Korra told them.

 _I have the exact same powers as Raava_ , Vaatu whispered in Korra’s head. Use me. You’re not in an emotional state, so you can control me just fine.

 _Fuck off_! Korra replied mentally, still trying her hardest. She had squeezed her eyes tight in the process of trying to energybend.

 _That man is eyeing you up right now,_ Vaatu warned. _If he smells your bullshit, he won’t hesitate in blasting you up. He’s always hated you, Korra, you’ve just become blind to it because you accepted it._

 _I don’t need your power!_ Korra reiterated _. Fuck off back to where you normally stay. And quietly!_

You say that, Vaatu started, yet you are calling for my power as we speak. You were in perfect control of your actions when you took that other firebender's bending back at the South Pole. Don’t let your stubbornness kill you.

 _I’d rather die than use your power_! Korra responded.

 _What about Kalla_? Vaatu responded, and Korra instantly knew that Vaatu had her cornered. _She would only have Mako as a parent if you died here. Consider that._

Korra wanted to tell him ‘no’ so badly, but then Tatsuo interrupted their argument.

“I’ve meditated into the spirit world myself plenty of times before,” Tatsuo told Korra. “And I have a knack for sensing changes in spiritual energy. It’s not great, but I sense jack-shit around you! What game are you playing, Avatar?”

“Just a few more seconds,” Korra said. She gave in. _I hope you know that this won’t be a regular occurrence_ , she told Vaatu as she summoned his power.

 _Of course not,_ he replied, then slipped away as Korra’s eyes glowed red. The destructive urge that came with Vaatu’s power pulled at Korra, but she resisted them as her thumb was surrounded in a bright red glow. Azula’s eyes widened as Korra restored her firebending, slowly but surely. After thirteen seconds, the light shut off completely and Korra stumbled away, breathing heavily. The mental strain from using the Avatar State through Vaatu hit much harder than with Raava.

Azula stood up slowly as Korra rubbed her temples. The old lady held her palm out, lighting a blue fire, and no matter how much she tried to act cool, her mouth stretched into a smile. Tatsuo’s did too.

“Wonderful,” she whispered, staring at the fire, delighted.

“This is brilliant!” Tatsuo exclaimed.

“It is,” Azula agreed, then looked up at Tatsuo. “We can celebrate later. For now, you need to sort out that shipment. You know the Juninho's, they always kick up a fuss if you’re late. Go. Now!”

“Yes, Master!” he accepted instantly, and hurried ecstatically out the door. That left just Korra and Azula in the room.

“Have you thought about my offer?’ Azula asked immediately, not wasting anytime on pleasantries.

“You’re welcome,” Korra replied sarcastically. “I have, but there’s one question I need answered before I say anything. Why? What’s the benefit in it for you?”

“That’s simple,” Azula told Korra, and held out a wiry strand of hair. “I don’t have much time left in this world. I wish it could be someone like Tatsuo to learn it, but he has tried endlessly and failed continuously. If you master this technique under me, it will be my greatest legacy aside from discovering it myself.”

“But I really want to see my daughter!” Korra argued for the sake of getting an excuse she couldn’t think of.

“No-one will ever come near you or your daughter if you can split your combustion bending into two bullets simultaneously,” Azula told Korra. “You told me yourself, it’s your duty as the Avatar to explore every element to its strongest extent, or something along those lines.”

Korra grumbled. It was the most annoying thing when someone used to your own logic against you, but she had already made up her mind anyway while Tatsuo was applying the tattoo. She just needed a good enough reason to stay on the island away from the outside world for another extended period of time.

“Very well,” Korra agreed.

“Excellent!” Azula exclaimed, then composed herself. “I mean, very good. I’ll have you notified when we start up training again.”

Korra looked closer at Azula’s eyes, but when she blinked, it was gone. But for half a second there, Korra swore that she saw… _pride_?

“What’s with the red glow?” Azula asked, cutting off Korra’s thoughts.

“It’s spiritual,” Korra told her, not wanting to explain her dilemma to Azula. “Really complicated. Not worth your time.”

“Does it have anything to do with why the tattoo is glowing?” Azula asked.

“The tattoo glowed?” Korra repeated, surprised. “Really?”

“I suppose you wouldn’t know then,” Azula said, then strolled out the door, leaving Korra alone in the room.

“I guess,” Korra said out loud, “it’s probably like airbending tattoos then. I mean, I guess it makes sense.”

“What was that?” Azula called from her chamber.

“Nothing!” Korra replied, and decided to give it more thought when she got back to her house.


	39. Out of Nowhere - Part One

Mako sat contently in his temporary chair just outside the Great Wall of Ba Sing Sae. It was evening time, and his friends were running their usual lavabending class. Three Dai Li stood there as supervisors, but in reality, they’d stepped in twice in the near-eleven months that Mo, Ling, Nel and Bolin had been running their course. They weren’t allowed to run classes anywhere near the city, due to potential accidents, but in the entire time, there had only been two cock-ups out of more than fourteen hundred people who came here weekly.

Three hundred students in the program were bound by the war clause that had seemed like such an issue so long ago, but apart from the odd political jibe, nothing serious had happened at all, at least to the public eye. Nel had grown a massive beard, which made him look like a lumberjack. He was very chatty now to Mako now. The five of them were a very tight-knit bunch, and even though Mako wasn’t a lavabender, not once did he ever feel that they were ostracizing him for it.

Mako could tell how much Bolin, Ling, Mo and Nel had come on as teachers, even from thirty yards away. They were all completely friendly to their students, but didn’t take any shit. If anyone started to mess around with lavabending, they were sent back home immediately. If they were seen to be constantly messing, they’d be given one last chance before being suspended, and expelled if they kept going after that. There had only been a few incidents when they’d had to go that far, but all of them weren’t going to jeopardise the entire class's time for one person.

Above all, they had all gained Mako’s respect massively, apart from Bolin, who had always had it. None of them had once gotten too big for their boots, despite the cash that had come flowing in. They all stayed grounded, and only focused on the next day. The only time one of them had gotten ahead of themselves was when Opal finally visited Bolin, and gave her approval for it when she saw how organised it was. She still wasn’t going to move to Ba Sing Sae, but he had her approval, and that was what really mattered.

But despite their close bonds, Mako had grown bored in Ba Sing Sae. He hated his job as a waiter, which he had quit just a few days ago after getting his final pay-check. Each passing night kept him up a little bit longer, because he just couldn’t put Kalla off of his mind for any longer. He’d sworn that he would go and beg for Korra’s forgiveness as soon as he heard where she was, but that was the problem.

Mako been glued to updates on Korra’s movements, but it had been just over a full year since they had met at the South Pole, a year since Mako had held Kalla, and there had been absolutely zero sightings of her. After she single-handedly demolished the United Forces’ attempt to capture her, there’d been very little enthusiasm to keep up the chase. No-one dared question her family after what had happened to General Iroh II, or even go near them, for that fact. It was the subject that everyone decided to shove under the rug, and forget about it. Even Asami, who had openly been so eager to bring Korra to justice, had given up the hunt.

 _I’ll look for Korra’s parents first,_ Mako thought _. I’ll look everywhere across the Southern Water Tribe, and if that doesn't work, I’ll go to the Northern Tribe. If that doesn’t work either, I’ll improvise. I’ll be at least a month searching them both, probably a lot more, so I’ll have plenty of time to think about it._

But Mako was optimistic, and determined. No matter how hard it would be, he would find Korra without fail. He didn’t want to ask her parents for permission to see Kalla, because only Korra had that right to restore to him. Kalla was one year old now, and he’d been out of her life for long enough.

Mako noticed five vans quietly pull up behind a hill, near to the classes still going on. They looked like delivery vans. But if that was the case, why didn’t they park closer to the official checking point just a few hundred yards away, the same one that the tram dropped every attending classes stopped at? The Dai Li all had their eyes on the students, so none of them noticed.

“It’s probably nothing,” Mako muttered, pushing himself up. “Nothing at all. I’d probably look like a fool, I’m just a guest watching.” He didn’t stop walking though, striding over uncertainly.

 _What’s so big that they need five vans_? Mako thought. _The others would’ve at least told me if it was something this important._

The vans were hidden so that nobody from the line of sight of the lavabending classes could see it. Mako, who had been sitting a far enough distance away because he didn't want to disrupt anything, did though. Nobody noticed him walking away, or if they did, they didn’t bother mentioning it. Mo, Nel, Ling and Bolin were giving all their focus to the students, so even if they did see him, they wouldn’t have bothered asking what he was doing.

“Not worth their time either,” Mako repeated, referring to the Dai Li too, as he walked up closer to the mound. He changed the direction he was walking in so that whoever was in the vans couldn’t see him walking up. His heart rate started to pick up a bit; it had been peaceful in Ba Sing Sae the entire time he’d been there, so he hadn’t had any action for quite a while. Mako decided that it would look weird if he was caught snooping around, so he didn’t show himself until the last moment possible.

“Hey there!” he proclaimed loudly, causing the three delivery men huddled together to jump. “Who do we have here?” They all turned in an instant, very tense.

“Who are you?!” one of them demanded immediately, standing up straight.

“I’m a supervisor to the classes,” Mako lied. “I don’t remember ordering anything at all, and definitely not big enough to require five vans. What are you doing here?”

“Just taking a break, before we have to go through the checks to get into Ba Sing Sae,” another man answered instantly, and then flashed a huge smile. “It’s gonna be a pain once the process starts, you know, everything’s so tight these days, so it’s good to relax before you go for the long haul.” He scratched the back of his head, still smiling broadly.

“L-T-R-N Delivery?” Mako read out, looking at the side of the van. “I’ve never heard of you guys.”

“Small company,” the man answered. The other two put on smiles as well, but Mako wasn’t nearly convinced.

“If you’re going into Ba Sing Sae,” Mako questioned, “why aren’t you heading for one of the other, bigger checkpoints? And why would you only be in vans rather than trucks if you’re going into somewhere as big as Ba Sing Sae?”

“Listen, pal, it’s none-“ one of the others started, but the second man put a hand on his shoulder.

“Dan, it’s fine,” he told his colleague. He went up to one of the vans and banged loudly the couple of times on the side, then said loud and clearly; “Eoin, there’s a supervisor here who wants proof that we’re just taking a break. Show him any ol' thing in there.”

“Any ol' thing?” the man named Eoin called back from inside repeated. “Like, all the glasses and cups?”

“ _Don’t break them_!” he emphasized. The man gestured for Mako to open the doors.

 _I’m being precautionary as it is_ , Mako thought as he walked up to the back doors, although adrenaline was pumping through his veins. He bit his lip, trying not to get ahead of himself, then grabbed the handles. He pulled them down.

Mako’s heart flipped when both doors smashed into him, slamming the former commander into the ground. He got winded on impact, and struggled to push the now-detached doors off of him. But when he did manage to do that, something hard clunked into his head. 

His head rolled to the side, and he saw the man named Dan standing over him with a metal baton, ready to bring it crashing down again. Mako glanced into the interior of the van, then he groggily rubbed his eyes, not registering what he had seen. But the four men clad in gold and beige gear still stood there warily when he opened his eyes again.

“Help,” Mako tried to shout, but he had no breath left, resulting in his cry not even being loud enough to qualify as a whisper.

“I said, _don’t break_ the glasses!” the first man’s voice growled hazily to Dan from what seemed like a distance, but was only a few yards away. “That means don’t kill them, so we can bring them back to Omashu!”

 _Omashu_? Mako thought, as he lay there, sprawled out. _But… I didn’t hear about a war being declared._

“He’s still awake!” Dan argued, pointing to Mako. “If I had wanted to kill him, I’d have made my bat thicker, or into a sword even!”

Mako tried to slash fire at them, but only a few weak embers came out as his fist fell weakly back onto the ground. The 'delivery' men's eyes widened when they saw him firebend.

“I thought he was a supervisor to the lavabenders?” a man coming out of the van asked, then hauled Mako up with one hand by the hem of his shirt, brass knuckles forming on his fist held just a few inches away from Mako’s nose. “Who are you?”

“I’m Mako,” Mako answered lazily, struggling to keep his eyes open.

“That’s Bolin’s brother!” one realised immediately, pointing. “He looks similar to the pictures of Bolin that we have!”

“How do you know… Bolin?” Mako spluttered. “He’s… he’s…” Mako coughed, spitting all over the man who was holding him up. “He’s… he’s got nothing to do with the Omashu situation.”

“Filthy cunt!” the man holding him snarled, wiping the spit off. “And don’t bother acting dumb! Everyone and their dog knows that Bolin is leading the lavabenders into war against Omashu! That’s why we’re here! We’re going to-“

“Shut your fat mouth!” Dan hissed. “If the job doesn’t work today, he’ll still be perfect leverage against Bolin, so we can’t kill him just yet! Don’t get ahead of yourself, the scouts say that Bolin, and his friend Ling, are nearly equal in strength in lavabending with King Siya!”

“That’s exaggerated, though, surely,” the man still holding Mako replied.

“Please, this is all one big misunderstanding,” Mako mumbled, barely able to put his sentences together. “Bolin isn’t a fighting type of guy.”

“Will one of you knock him out, for fuck’s sake!” the first man to greet Mako ordered. “Before you loud mouths spout too much! And secure him to the seat when locking him up! He can’t metalbend, so we don’t need to use the platinum 'cuffs.”

“Sure thing, Robbo,” the man holding Mako replied, then looked at the near-unconscious firebender. “It’s a bit late for just a misunderstanding, the attacks have already begun!”

Then he punched Mako in the nose, and the father of one blacked out.

  
A delivery van rolled up close to the grid Ling was teaching on. He stopped his lesson for a minute to raise an eyebrow, curious.

“Delivery for the Ba Sing Sae Lavabending Society?” a man with a monotone voice called out, sticking his head out the window.

“Sorry, it’s not mine,” Ling shouted to make his voice heard. He looked to the other three, but all of them shrugged their shoulders.

“Who does it say?” Bolin called out. He was sweating from yet another hard class. “Who sent it?”

“There’s no name,” the delivery man answered, then stuck his head back inside the window. He grabbed a big enough cardboard box from the passenger seat, kicked open his door, and hopped out. He set the package down very gently on the ground, then took a sip of water from a pouch.

“Must be a mistaken identity,” Ling called. “And besides, we’re the Ba Sing Sae School of Lavabending.”

“You’re the only lavabenders I could find!” the man persisted. “If it’s not yours, you can return it later. No extra fees.”

Ling looked to Bolin, and shrugged. Bolin shrugged back.

“Alright!” Ling agreed, then turned to the student who’d just had his turn. “Heung, go get that package. Put it towards the back of the group, away from the grid so it doesn’t get splashed on, since you’ll be going back there in a minute.”

“Yes, sir,” the seventeen-year-old replied. He walked over casually to the package, hoisting it up and carrying it back. He placed it gently at the back, just behind where most people were standing, to keep it a safe distance away from the lava.

“What about forms?” Bolin called out. “Surely we have to sign something? Is it expensive?”

“Only about a hundred yuans,” the delivery man replied, waving a sheet of paper. “You’ll get your money back if it’s not yours.”

“Sure!” Bolin called back, and started to walk to the man, even though Ling was closer. However, one of the Dai Li stopped him, putting a hand on Bolin’s chest.

“It’s fine,” the agent said. “I’ll get it. You keep going with your classes. There’s very little for me to do anyway, so don’t think anything of it.”

“Okay,” Bolin responded, and turned back to his class, although when he turned, he swore that he saw something change about the man’s expression. Was there… a scowl there?

 _It’s been a long day, I’m probably just seeing things_ , Bolin reassured himself, wiping his brow. He couldn’t wait to head back to the apartment and get an early night.

Ling kept watching them out of the corner of his eye; something didn’t sit right. They’d already collected the fees for this month’s tutelage, along with the forms. He watched as the delivery man reached inside for something, presumably a pen, the Dai agent getting a little bit closer.

Suddenly, the Dai Li agent tripped, and the delivery man caught him. Ling turned his full attention to the both of them. He couldn’t make out much, as they were hidden partially by the wide-open door, but after a few seconds, the Dai Li agent still didn’t regain his balance. Then, he fell over, and curled up on the ground.

“Help, something’s happened, I think he’s had a stroke!” the delivery man shouted, worried. All eyes turned to the collapsed secret agent, who was clutching his chest. The other two Dai Li agents raced over, sliding in to crouch down beside their colleague. The delivery man stepped away nervously, shaking, shouting something inaudible. But as the two agents turned their backs to him, his worried look was replaced by a malicious smile. Two sharp, metal, pointed objects slid out from his sleeves, one already stained with blood.

“NO!” Bolin bellowed, realising too late what was about to happen. 

Mo, Nel, Ling, Bolin and the other eighty students watched on in horror as the two Dai Li agents were viciously assassinated by two swords in their backs, a clean strike through the heart for both of them. They both fell to their knees, then toppled in unison onto their comrade, similarly clutching their chests.

“You’re next!” the delivery man cheered sadistically, pulling a remote out of his pocket. “Omashu is the one and only capital of the Earth Kingdom!” he declared.

‘”THE PACKAGE!” Mo yelled, pointing at the cardboard box just behind most of the children from Ling’s class. “GET AWAY FROM THE PACKAGE!!!”

“Lavabending is a royal art that should only be reserved for the Royal Family of Omashu!” he screamed, and pressed a button on his remote.

Bolin watched helplessly, in slow motion, as fifteen students who had been very close to the package tried to run away. But as a couple took their first, painstakingly, seemingly lazy strides, the box bulged as it lit up. It erupted into a bright yellow fire, transforming as the quickest to react got their second strides in. Too late, Bolin thought to encase it earth, but he didn’t even have enough time to lift his finger as reality sped up, and it swallowed up all fifteen students, in one burst.

A violent explosion surrounded and killed all fifteen teenagers at once. Ling’s heart stopped as three-thirds of his students were all dismembered in a fiery death, flinging their body parts all across the grids. Screams and cries immediately pierced the air, as most of the students broke down. Ling had so many emotions swirling around his head, the main one being disbelief.

 _What? What? Wha_ -

Ling was snapped back to reality by a sharp pain in his side as a metal blade sliced across his ribs. He twisted, just in time to see another small, sharp grey object blitzing towards him, this time heading straight for his heart. Ling turned his body around and lashed his right hand upwards. A small rock that had been lying on the ground flew upwards to intercept the blade. They connected perfectly, the blade flipping harmlessly over Ling’s head. He saw four more people, who had presumably come out of the back of the truck, bring their arms back to fire more metal blades. Ling’s instincts kicked in, and he punched the ground in front of him.

A large stone wall rose up, protecting Ling and his five remaining students. Several small chinks followed a few seconds later from the other side. Ling’s breath caught in his throat, bile rising, as he glanced at a hand to his left. No forearm, just a bloody hand thrown some distance.

“That’s… that’s James' hand…” one of the girls recognised immediately, covering her mouth with her hands. She stopped, unable to move.

Ling also stared at it as he saw Mo, Nel and Bolin raised their own walls, students cowering behind their teachers. Many of them, if they weren’t screaming, gazed blankly at the corpses, strewn all over the place. They didn’t know what to think, just like Ling, their bodies shutting down.

“Ling…” a voice rang out. “Ling… Ling…!”

 _Is somebody calling for me?_ Ling thought, unresponsive.

“LING!” Bolin screamed. “LING, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?”

Ling was hauled back to reality as he warped his head around to look at Bolin.

“I… I…” Ling responded, his eyes widening as the severity of what had just happened started to sink in.

“GET THE OTHER STUDENTS OUT OF HERE NOW!” Bolin commanded, his breath clearly ragged even from this distance. He had tears beginning to creep down his face. “NOW!!!” The meaning of what Bolin said only registered a second later.

“Run back to the place you came here from!” Ling demanded immediately to his students, pointing in the far-off distance, the opposite direction of the van. “I’ll cover you, just run! Don’t stop running until you’re absolutely safe! I’ll cover your backs, just GO!”

Four of the five students took off, belting in the same direction as the other three classes were going. Mo was running at the tail of his group, always keeping his eyes on the assailants, deflecting metal blades that were lobbed over the top. Unfortunately, one student remained, the girl who had recognised the hand as being James'. She stood there, still in shock.

“Didn’t you hear me?!” Ling shouted at the girl only a few metres away. “RUN!” Part of the wall he had erected crumpled as a block of earth crashed into it. She didn’t seem to notice.

Ling wasn’t going to waste any time though. He marched up to her, held her cheek in his left hand, and slapped her hard on the face with his right. She blinked, the pain retrieving her senses. She looked up at Ling, beginning to cry for the loss of her friends.

“ _SCRAMBLE_!” Ling roared, and she jumped. He pointed again in the direction of the other students who had already put quite a distance in between themselves and the girl, gesturing wildly as he struggled to find more words. She got the message though, thankfully, and instantly belted off, not saying anything, just crying inconsolably.

Bolin and Nel both simultaneously made a dash for Ling's wall. Several blades whizzed past the two men, nicking them both, but none of them made any serious impact, thankfully. They slid in beside Ling, both breathing heavily.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Ling demanded.

“That’d be nice to know!” Nel retorted angrily as their wall began to get an almighty amount of abuse. It threatened to crumple at any moment.

“Why?” Bolin asked, his voice cracking up. He was struggling to hold himself together. “Why us?!”

“That doesn’t matter!” Nel snapped. He stood up, and pushed his hands towards sky. The thickness of the wall increased by tenfold as most of the cooled down grid was turned into a buffer for the wall.

A metal blade flew in dangerously from the side. Nel snarled, the only one fully in the moment, and swung his fist in a vicious ark. A chunk of rock belted out of the ground, flying past the wall at someone who had tried to sneak around. Ling heard a startled cry as it smacked into one of the assailants.

Ling peaked around the side, but tore his head back as a dozen blades were directed at him. They clung off the hard stone ground, landing just in the view to the lads' left. But in that brief moment, he’d seen enough to make him want to run away, and never come back.

There were suddenly another four vans, to add to the first one. Five people dressed as delivery men stood there, along with fifteen others. In the short glimpse he’d seen, he could see that all the people who weren’t dressed as delivery men had a dark yellow tunic, thick beige kilts and a traditional wide earth kingdom cap. Lining all around their outfits in several rows, were the small metal blades that they were firing.

“They’re the same blades that the Earth Empire used to have on our uniforms!” Bolin recognised. They were an exact copy. “Is this the Earth Empire? Back again?”

“No!” Ling answered, chucking a block of earth blindly at the attackers. “I think-“ He was cut off by a rock that very nearly split his head open. “I think they’re from Omashu! The guy with the remote mentioned something about the royal family of Omashu, or something! Has a war finally broken out?”

“If it has,” Nel started, creating a small pool of lava and firing lobs at the Omashu assailants, “why weren’t we fuckin’ told about it then?! There are over a dozen dead students lying in various pieces all around here!”

“It might be guerrilla warfare!” Ling suggested as he did the same as Nel, flinging lava around the wall and at the Omashu soldiers.

“That’s fuckin' cowardly!” Nel shouted, keeping up with the barrage of lava. “The second most powerful state in the Earth Kingdom aren’t even willing to send a proper army, instead just targeting a bunch of children? Scumbags, the whole lot of them!”

The weight of what had just happened hit both Ling and Bolin at the same time, sinking in as deep it could go.

 _Omashu have just killed countless children solely because they live in Ba Sing Sae_ , Bolin thought. A dark, numb feeling crept over his heart, expanding everywhere all over his body. It was cold. Unforgiving. It only had one thing that could satisfy it, and it wasn’t peaceful talking.

 _All of the children in this class bar one or two were from the Lower Ring_ , Ling thought, his tears drying up. He wiped his face. _None of them would have anything to do with politics. A couple of them came here for fun._ Ling’s grief twisted itself into something different from before; fury.

“Bolin, get the fuck up!” Nel urged, struggling to keep up with the tempo of the Omashu soldiers, barely managing to squeeze the odd shot in here or there.

“I don’t know what it has to do with us,” Bolin started, determined, “but we can’t-“

They all yelled in surprise as the wall they were shielding behind exploded right in front of them. None of them were seriously hurt, but all of them were thrown several metres back. Nel and Ling landed particularly badly, skidding on their backs, while Bolin was used to being thrown around due to probending, so he landed on his feet. He stood up, got into the proper stance, and created a moat of lava.

All the soldiers from Omashu came pouring through, having dug a tunnel right in the middle of the wall, and planted explosives right through the middle. They all lined up with one fist held back, ready to unleash a flurry of attacks.

“Bolin!” the original delivery man called out, walking forward, breaking the line. “We are soldiers from Omashu! We’re asking you to come quietly before things get any worse.”

“Before things get any worse?!” Bolin shouted, his rage increasing by the second. “You’ve just murdered over a dozen innocent children, and you expect me to take that calmly?!” The lava slopped around, causing the soldiers to take a step or two back.

“We know all about the war clause you have going on!” the man declared, pointing a finger. “Your lavabenders would’ve taken countless more lives! Don’t try to play innocent!” Ling and Nel both pushed themselves up, cut up pretty badly in a lot of places.

“Us?” Ling repeated, almost laughing, his hands up too. “You’ve just taken innocent lives of children away! Don’t you dare play the victim here!”

“Come over quietly, Bolin,” the man repeated. “And we won’t kill your friends too.”

“I never wanted anything to do with a war!” Bolin stated, really struggling to keep a lid on his emotions. “And there’s no way you’d get your rotten hands on any of us!”

“Oh really?” the man challenged. He turned and nodded to the man to his left, who got the message. He pulled up something he’d dragged behind him, and held it out for everyone to view. Bolin’s shoulders tensed up, even though he thought that it was physically impossible for them to get any tighter. In his hands, the man was holding an unconscious, bruised, bloody Mako.

“You BASTARD!” Bolin screamed. “Give him back now!”

“Nuh uh uh,” the man hackled, wiggling his finger, but a little bit of nervousness snuck into his tone. He was clearly aware that they didn’t have much time before help arrived “A brother for a brother. Otherwise, his blood will be on your hands! That’s a guarantee, I’ll do it right now! Think about the others, Bolin!”

Bolin was barely staying sane. His immense hatred for this man and his companions had just grown even more. He suddenly felt that he understood how Mako felt when he faced Kenichi Shinoda, nearly two years ago now. The unquenchable thirst for… payback.

“Make your decision in the next few seconds, Bolin, or I’ll kill him anyway!” the man shouted. “What will it be?”

“Nel, Ling,” Bolin said quietly. “I’ve made up my mind, but what about you two? I’m thinking an eye for an eye.” But the tone wasn’t that of someone up for a simple trade, and the others knew immediately.

“Sounds reasonable,” Nel muttered. “Ling?”

“It’s only fair,” Ling replied, a cloak of darkness surrounding him. He was usually the one who always tried to talk his way out of things, the one was always optimistic, the one who always refused to sort things out through violence. But when he looked down, and saw the detached, bloody foot that had belonged to a healthy, living, breathing child just a few minutes ago, he could only find room in his heart for one thing: Hate.

The soldier holding Mako whelped as he was suddenly catapulted through the air, by the ground at his feet erupting. He involuntarily let go of Mako as they crossed the moat, flailing, and was helpless to stop a rock from Bolin smash into his ribs. Nel caught Mako while the Omashu soldier _clunked_ his head off of the ground, and stayed there, motionless.


	40. Out of Nowhere - Part Two

Bolin and Ling both roared as they pushed their open palms outwards. The moat of lava suddenly rose up, and attempted to wash over the Omashu soldiers. They all hastily retreated, erecting small walls to divert the flow. Two soldiers hid behind each wall, with three behind one, making nine in total. Nel covered Mako with a slanted rock as the firebender stayed unconscious. He then immediately erected a four-foot wall to protect the three of them fighting.

“None of them are lavabenders!” Ling realised, as he, Nel and Bolin pelted the walls with volleys of lava. “They’re all metalbenders, by the looks of it! We’ve got the advantage!”

“Let’s make these lowlifes pay!” Bolin declared, increasing the velocity of the lava volleys, but didn’t spot a metal blade zooming out from the side. It impaled him in the shoulder.

“AGH!” he cried, immediately ripping it out and automatically holding and spot where it had been in. He would have been done for by the flurry of metal blades that were sent at the sound of his cry, but Ling tackled him to the ground. Fresh blood spurted out on impact.

“You good?” Ling asked urgently.

“I’m fine!” Bolin said, gritting his teeth, the adrenaline rush numbing the pain for the time being. He rotated his injured shoulder, which only moved a little stiffly, and got back into the fighting.

Nel slammed the sides of his fists on the ground. A line of blunt but large spikes travelled towards one wall, through the moat of lava, and exploded under their feet. The two Omashu soldiers were thrown high up into the air, landing hard on the shoulders. Even with all the ruckus, everyone could hear the sickening _cracks_ from both of them. Nel had no time to appreciate his attack, as two dozen metal blades came right at him. He dropped harshly onto the ground, but the danger passed over his head harmlessly.

“I'd be wiping the floor with these bastards if I weren’t so tired!” Ling commented as he belted the walls with volley after volley of lava. He was referring to the fact that he was already wrecked from the lesson earlier.

“They probably planned it like that!” Bolin replied as he narrowly dodged a blade to his abdomen. He replied with three quick volleys of lava.

“I’ve got these two!” Nel vouched as two soldiers vaulted themselves over the moat by the side of the wall. Nel created a spinning lava ninja star, as Bolin had taught him, in response to the metal swords they formed with all the separated blades on their uniforms. They started swiping at him, but Nel didn’t dare let them get close as he parried their attacks with his lava shuriken. He barely made contact, though, as he had to also focus on keeping his positioning right so that the other Omashu soldiers couldn’t get a clean shot on him, while his two didn’t get a free shot at Bolin and Ling.

After a full minute of constant swiping, Nel slicing their swords in half, only for theirs to grow back with all the backup metal blades, he finally saw an opening. In their haste to get in close to him, one saw his chance when Nel had his lava shuriken dealing with the other guy to get a jab in. However, as he made the bolt, Nel sliced the second guy’s sword for the seventh time, then punched at the first guy with his fist, no lava. The first guy was helpless to do anything as Nel smacked him right in the nose, the 6’5 man not holding back.

His other opponent saw his opportunity though, slicing in a dangerous arc upwards. Nel could only try and shimmy away from it, his arm still extended. The Omashu soldier missed his intended uppercut on the torso, but unfortunately for Nel, he wasn’t done there. He kept going, the blade getting longer every second, and the tip dragged Nel’s face.

“AGGGGH!” Nel howled as a centimetre-deep cut was sliced from his jaw line just to beside his eyebrow. He snarled, and whipped the lava upwards blindly in the same way his opponent did. It had no accuracy, but luckily for Nel, it caught the Omashu soldier's hand. The soldier bellowed as his hand was burnt away, but Nel wasn’t satisfied with that. He smacked the soldier in the nose just like he did with the first one, then dived back to cover as twenty metal blades were sent flying his way. He landed with a grunt, breathing harshly.

“NEL!” Ling called as he took cover similarly.

“I’ll be fine,” he told Ling, grimacing, but their attention was caught by Bolin crying out again.

“FUCK!” Bolin shouted, falling down onto one knee and clutching the spot he’d been impaled in, as the same shoulder as before got whacked with a brick. Ling could only defend himself, still standing up, with no opportunity to counter, as countless bricks and metal blades flew at him. He tried to dodge most of them, but with the other two still down for a minute, he had to stay up and keep the enemy’s attention. It was a miracle that he hadn’t gotten hit yet.

“I think it’s dislocated!” Bolin gasped, the pain overwhelming. He took deep breaths to try and ignore it, but the searing sensation only grew as Bolin paid more attention to it.

“How do you know it’s not broken?” Nel asked, clutching the side of his bloody face. His hand was dyed red, and he had the look of a zombie. Bolin might have found it kind of cool if there weren’t the limbs of dead children scattered all around.

“I dislocated it a few years ago,” Bolin answered, rubbing his eyes, “and the feeling is the exact same.”

“Reach with your good arm over to your bad shoulder, behind your back!” Nel ordered, chucking a rock over the top to keep the Omashu soldiers from getting too brave.

“Why?” Bolin asked, resulting in a scowl from Nel.

“Guys, I need help!” Ling shouted, not looking down. He had several cuts, some nicks and others deeper, but he didn’t pay any attention to them as he blocked and swerved from countless attacks.

“It’ll get your shoulder back in shape, just trust me!” Nel emphasized, standing back up. He found new energy and started firing several volleys of lava at the Omashu soldiers.

“ _Shit_!” Bolin cursed loudly, as he did as Nel told him, his shoulder popping back into place. It was sore as hell, but when he rotated it, it responded fine. Moving it wasn’t without its fair share of pain, but it was bearable. He got back up and continued the fighting, albeit a little gingerly on his weaker shoulder.

After another few minutes, help still hadn’t arrived. The three of them were exhausted, not able to keep their previous pace up any longer. The Omashu soldiers noticed this within a minute, and were getting especially bold with their attacks, staying up for an extra half-second than before. If they had been lavabenders, Nel, Ling and Bolin would’ve been dead long ago.

“They’re running out of metal blades!” Ling noted, seeing a lot more bricks coming at him than before, bruised all over. “Just a little bit more, lads!”

“I don’t think I can keep this up for much longer,” Nel admitted, the worst off. He was a bigger target, so he got hit the most, obviously, although he didn’t take it quietly. He’d been the most ferocious in fighting out of the three of them.

“Me neither!” Bolin exclaimed as a blade zipped just under his ear. “We don’t know when help will arrive, we need to finish this soon or we’re all done for!”

“Any suggestions?” Ling asked as he sluggishly hurled a block of earth.

“Melt their walls!” Nel said immediately, squinted with the blood that was covering his eyes. He kicked a block of earth into one of his designated men. “We’ll be killed off one by one if we keep up with this! It’ll take a bit of concentration, but we should be able to do it. If we’re gonna launch a big attack, we need to do it now while we still have energy!”

“I’m with him!” Bolin vouched, panting hard.

“Me too!” Ling agreed. “Let’s do it now! Two walls each, I’ll get the wider one with three people! On my signal!” Seven Omashu soldiers had been knocked out or worse, including the one from the very beginning. That left thirteen.

The men all ducked down under their wall, taking a short breather. They got a feel for where their designated walls were, then placed their hands flat on the ground. Nel and Bolin both looked to Ling.

“Now!” Ling whispered, and they all exhaled slowly in unison. Three of the enemy walls started to melt, making the soldiers hop back, startled. The other three melted a few seconds later, leaving large puddles of lava in between the Omashu soldiers. They jumped about uncertainly, nearly knocking each other in, shouting.

Nel pounced on this uncertainty, shoving his palms against his wall. It flew towards two exposed soldiers at a high velocity, crashing into them, potentially killing them as they fell back stiffly.

Ling read Nel's thoughts, and punched the ground, resulting in another wall shooting up for protection. He saw four soldiers bunch together, as if that would give them more strength, but in fact, it just gave Ling a wider target. He jumped onto one knee, slamming the sides of his fists onto ground, pointing to his right with his hands still clenched, and dragged them to the left.

A curling lava line, the same technique as Nel's spike line, started making its way to the four men, bubbling menacingly. If there had only been one or two of them, the soldiers might’ve had enough room to create a temporary but strong enough wall, but there was no space with the four of them squeezed in between lava puddles. They recognised this instantly, and started scrambling to get out of the way. Ling thought he timed it so that it would catch them all, but three of the four got lucky, crawling out of the radius just in time. The fourth however, was not so fortunate.

“MY FOOT!” he screamed as the lava burst flopped out onto his trailing left boot. He tried to claw away from it, digging his fingers in and crawling away, but there was no saving his foot as the flesh was burnt away first, then followed by the bone.

 _This isn’t what lavabending is meant to be about_! Ling cursed mentally. Although he didn’t feel any remorse for the man, he definitely didn’t enjoy the man’s cries, even if he was in on the plot to blow up Ling’s students. Just the gritty desire to make them pay was found in Ling’s heart.

“We need to get them now, before they get reorganised!” Bolin stated, breathing even heavier than before. “Nel, you stay back and protect Mako, Ling and I will go in for close combat. We’ve got the upper hand that way, you’re too awkward for jabbing and weaving!”

“You don’t need to remind me!” Nel snarled, grimacing as his cut from a few minutes ago still bled freely. “Start from the very right, so they can only come at you from one angle! Now! I’ll give you cover!”

“Ready, Ling?” Bolin asked, looking at his best friend.

“Let’s let them know what we’re fuckin’ made of!” Ling declared, and they bumped fists.

Bolin and Ling sprung out over the wall, Nel erecting another spike line just alongside them as they ran, blocking all the shots from those who were steady on their feet. Ling threw a heavy hook, and block of earth followed, cracking into a soldier’s skull. He fell down, but neither of them even gave it a moment of appreciation. Bolin parted the shallow amount of lava remaining in the moat, and Ling didn’t break pace as he strode through the gap.

Ling brought his open hand around in wide arc, lava following it. He finished the arc with a slapping motion, catching the first of two men with it full on the chest. He wailed, stumbling away and bumping into his friend. As Ling stepped up close to the second man, who was still unbalanced, he prepared to kick a rock right into the man’s crotch, but Bolin was faster than Ling. The stocky, black haired lavabender exited the moat right after Ling, and pelted a block into the stomach of the man Ling was going for.

The remaining soldiers sent a flurry of metal blades the way of Bolin and Ling. They both stomped on the ground, creating thin but wide enough walls, protecting themselves. Ling and Bolin spun, planting their heels into the walls and launching them at the next two in line. One of the walls was dealt with easily, but Ling’s wall knocked a soldier onto his back, making him lie beside the plenty others that were on the floor. The only other one that was conscious down with him was the man who Ling had burnt the foot off of, and he was struggling to hold in the pain. He could barely keep his eyelids open, seemingly.

“They’re coming!” Nel exclaimed to himself, as he saw six police wagons coming from the distance, where all the students had run. He didn’t say it too loudly though, as he didn’t want to distract Bolin and Ling. He mustered the last dregs of energy, growling, and continued with his bombardment of lava.

“Remember that ninja star move I taught you a while back?” Bolin asked Ling desperately as four soldiers charged up on them. He formed one himself, the speed of the rotations increasing very quickly.

“The one that Nel used earlier?” Ling asked, as the four soldiers grew swords from the small amount of metal blades they had left. “Yeah, do you want me make one?”

“Take mine!” Bolin urged, passing it to his blond-haired friend. “Don’t let them get close, wait for an opening!” Ling controlled the lava shuriken naturally in between both of his hands as they were charged at. Bolin created his own, and they both roared as the four soldiers ran up to them and started swiping.

Ling jiggled furiously as he struggled to keep up with the tempo that the Omashu soldiers were setting. He parried every shot they sent at him, including the jabs, but he couldn’t get one in himself as his lava shuriken didn’t have nearly enough reach for Ling to strike without opening his body out. He was separated from Bolin’s shoulder as the four Omashu soldiers went back to back. Ling wobbled dangerously as they tried to force him backwards into the moat. Bolin was getting further and further away, having to back up himself.

Ling managed to turn neatly to avoid having his back to the moat, heading back to where all the enemies had originally charged from. He got a deep gash up the side of his ribs as he let up temporarily, nearly dropping the shuriken, but kept his concentrations levels just above the surface. He kept on backing away to give himself more room.

Nel glanced back at the wagons, which were still a fair distance away, and cursed. That slip up in attention was all his opponent needed though, because when Nel looked back, he briefly saw a metal blade flying through the air. He tried to move his forearms to take the blow, but knew instantly that he was never going to make it. The blade pierced itself right under Nel's ribcage, sticking in four inches deep. Nel spluttered as he helplessly fell back, grasping clumsily at the blade, then coughed up blood. He landed with a thump, smacking his head sorely off the ground as he failed miserably to pull it out.

 _I don’t think it hit a vital point_ , were his last, doubtful thoughts. He thought he heard Mo yelling his name as his vision got darker, the orange streaks across the evening sky potentially the last thing he would ever see. Nel blacked out, unconscious, or worse.

Bolin thought he saw Nel collapse out of the corner of his eye, but couldn’t give it any consideration as he kept on stepping back, looking for an opening. They were both extremely wary of his spinning lava ninja star. The one thing that left any type of opening was how one of them leaned forward a bit with his head when going for a heavy swipe, but he was careful never to let the shuriken get anywhere near him. The man didn’t need to either, Bolin’s shuriken went only as far as his hands, while his sword was at least a foot long.

 _I’ve got it_! Bolin thought, thinking of an idea, and waited for the next time the man leant his head forward. When he did, Bolin pretended to be about to back away, but at the last moment, he stomped his foot on the ground. A rock the size of a head shot up and crashed into the man’s chin. He let out a strange type of gurgle as his jaw bone was cracked permanently. He fell back, whimpering, out of the fight.

“You bastard!” the other soldier shouted as he swiped violently without real direction at Bolin.

“You’re the only ones who deserve that name!” Bolin snapped, then changed his shuriken into something long and thin. He held out his lava whip for the man to see, then lashed it at him. The man tried to cut it in half, stupidly, and was helpless to do anything as the top half of the lava whip splattered onto his face, scarring him forever. He screamed, but Bolin didn’t stop there though, and curled a rock into his gut. The man toppled, unconscious.

Bolin turned to face the rest of the action. He saw Ling barely managing to hold off the other two, and in the distance, saw police wagons. His enraged heart, that burned with the thought of his murdered students, lifted a tiny bit. 

But it suddenly skipped a beat as Bolin saw the man without a foot slowly get up onto a knee behind Ling, a blade lengthening. It elongated to a metre, and Bolin knew that Ling was in trouble. Bolin was twenty metres away. He started sprinting, shouting.

Ling didn’t hear him. He was too busy dealing with the two in front of him to pay any attention. Bolin started to take longer strides, but then, the worst possible thing happened.

Bolin tripped, landing face first in the dirt. He spat the dust out, and tried to call for Ling’s attention. But his voice was mute, his body shutting down as the horror scene slowly unfolded in front of him. He swung his right arm wildly, hoping for something, any type of connection as a rock was hurled at the man with one foot, who taking his sweet time to get his angles right as Ling unintentionally backed up towards him. The soldiers Ling was fighting knew what was going on, purposely making Ling step up even more, as they played with him.

The rock took eons to travel the small distance in between Bolin and the man with one foot. Bolin felt he could’ve crawled faster as he lay there, his hand reaching out for any type of divine intervention. He could’ve written a biography in that time. He could’ve raised a family. But the one thing he couldn’t do was intervene any more as the rock honed in on its target.

 _Please_! Bolin prayed, desperately, shaking.

The rock tore the wide hat that the man had on off of his head, flipping it into the moat. The man halted, turning his head mechanically, and stared at Bolin in the eye. Bolin pleaded mentally with all his might for the man to stop, to reconsider, but all he got in return was an evil, crooked grin.

“NOOOO!!!” Bolin screamed.

The metre-long sword plunged through Ling's upper backside, travelling all the way through, to come out stained at the other end. Ling's jerking movements stopped suddenly, his lava shuriken falling into the moat. He tried to keep it up, but failed, without so much as a drop staying up. He gazed blankly at the two men in front of him, then his head drooped down. Realisation dawned on his face as he saw the metal sticking out. He tried to form words, but couldn’t, just coughing up blood instead. He tried one last swipe at the soldiers of Omashu, but his hand stopped taking orders halfway, falling down limply. He fell to his knees as his murderer pulled his weapon out calmly.

 _Not… not Ling too… It can’t be_ … Bolin thought hopelessly as he stayed on the ground, paralysed. Ling fell onto his back, blood seeping out in countless parts of his body in addition to the hole in his chest.

“Let’s get out of here, the cops are coming!” the man who… who _stabbed_ Ling said. “We’ll be dead meat if we stick around here any longer!”

“What about Bolin and Mohamed?” one of the guys asked. “They’re still alive!”

“We got two out of the four, along with plenty of their students!” the man stated. “Let’s go!”

His two comrades agreed with a curt nod, and both helped him up, putting an arm each around their shoulders. He hobbled away with them, back into a van. Three other soldiers followed, the other fourteen from the beginning all incapable of moving. They piled into one van and sped off, but Bolin didn’t take any note. He stayed lying there, staring at his friend, a hand out, unable to move for fear of reality moving forward.

Then, Ling’s head rolled to his left, and made eye contact with Bolin, his eyelids shuddering. Bolin finally found his limbs responsive again, and sprinted towards his stricken friend.

“LING!” Bolin howled desperately, crying uncontrollably as he ran to Ling's side. He knee-slid down to be by his best friend. “Ling! Don’t move! We’ll get you patched you immediately, but you have to-“ Bolin stopped talking suddenly as Ling brought one finger to his sobbing friend’s mouth.

“Shush,” Ling whispered, somehow smiling despite the immense pain he was clearly going through. His hand dropped down to his side. “Don’t cry. Think of all the good times we had.”

“Bu-bu-bu-but,” Bolin stuttered, sniffling. “Ling, you’re…” he trailed off, not wanting to say the word.

“It’s fine, honestly,” Ling reassured Bolin weakly, somehow still finding the energy to be gentle. “I guess you were the better fighter in the end, huh?”

“I never meant to prove you wrong like this!” Bolin cried, shaking. He clutched the blood-stained shirt of his best friend.

“I don’t have much time left,” Ling stated, his breathing ragged. “I need you to remember everything I tell you now. Please, as my last favour.”

“I will!” Bolin swore, staring painfully at his friend’s mouth.

“First of all,” Ling started, “I want you to tell my mum and dad that I love them… and I always have, no matter how bad… things seemed when we last spoke.”

“Got that!” Bolin gasped, short of breath himself.

“Next…” Ling rasped. “I want all my money to go to my little sister. She’s going to need it very soon for life… in general. I love her dearly, even if we haven’t agreed… on a lot of points. I will… watch over her in death too, I promise.”

“Take your time!” Bolin urged, his salty tears splashing onto Ling’s chest. His heartache grew and grew as the inevitable approached.

“Tell Mo that he can be the best engineer in the world if he puts his mind to-“ He was cut off by his vomit spewing out of his mouth. It splashed on Bolin’s face, but the former probender didn’t even take note. “-if he puts his mind to it,” Ling finished, drooling uncontrollably. “Tell Nel that if he wants to do ballet, he can do ballet, and that no-one will judge him for it.”

“Nel wAnTs tO Do bAllEt?” Bolin repeated, his voice cracking several tones.

“Yep,” Ling confirmed, one eye slowly shutting of its own accord. “And this is for Mako; Never…” Ling retched horribly, struggling to keep on breathing as he slowly bled out. “Never give up on Kalla! I need him to swear that on my deathbed!”

“He will!” Bolin promised, taking in short, sharp breaths. He felt like fainting, but forced his blurry eyes to stay open.

“And for you, bro,” Ling began to finish, breathing in his last few breaths, “you’ve been the best friend I’ve ever had. Even if we didn’t even… have two years together… they were a great time. I wouldn’t take back one minute of it, even all the time you were latched… onto Opal…” Ling smiled toothily, still managing to look at the bright side of things even on his deathbed. Bolin saw the last dregs of life slipping away from Ling’s body.

"LING!!!" Bolin screamed, trying to return the smile, but it only broke into a whimper. He’d only felt this type of trauma once before, as a small child. When his parents had died as an eight-year-old boy.

Ling flashed his trademark, confident smile, then shut his one open eye. Bolin wailed as the young, frail body breathed its last breath, and then slumped.

Ling Fernandez was dead.


	41. A New Resolve

_One week after Ling's death_

Bolin wandered aimless through the edgy streets of Ba Sing Sae, the rent for the rest of the month in his pocket. A burnt down building was cordoned off to his left, formerly a pub, if Bolin remembered correctly. It wasn’t the only victim of the sudden guerrilla tactics from Omashu. War had officially begun.

There had been fifty-seven simultaneous attacks all across Ba Sing Sae, mainly in the Lower Ring, but a good few in the Middle Ring too. They had even managed to infiltrate the Upper Ring, setting off a bomb there.

Eight hundred and ninety-two. That was the official number of those murdered, and was still rising every day as more corpses were uncovered. Only three bombings had been foiled, which seemed pitiful in comparison to the tragedies that had occurred. Banks, police stations, pubs, libraries, even a few bending schools. Every aspect of socialising had been targeted so long as it was a popular place to gather, in the public’s general downtime, when they were off guard.

Nel was in hospital, one of the very few people to get away from these attacks alive, although he was in critical condition. He wasn’t allowed any visitors for the time being, as apparently, his oesophagus had been pierced, making it extremely hard to eat food. Every breath caused him pain, according to the doctors. Mo had left for Zaofu to tell Ling’s family the horrible news. They could send a letter, of course, but even the notion of that seemed extremely shallow.

Ling had been almost a mentor figure to all of them, so the idea of letting his mother, father and little sister learn of his death by just a measly letter was pathetic. No amount of words could explain the heartache that Mako, Bolin and Mo were going through (Nel wasn’t to be told until he was fully fit). It was as though their souls had been ripped out of them. 

Mo beat himself up relentlessly with guilt, as he thought he could have prevented the death of his best friend too, if he hadn’t run away, in his words. Bolin reassured him endlessly that he had ensured the safety of over fifty children by following them back, but even those words felt empty. He just couldn’t summon up any empathy, even though they were all a tight knit group.

Had been a tight knit group.

Mako was the only one who cried openly all the time, ironically, seeing as he was the 'tough guy' growing up. This was because of two things. He had been torn apart mentally when he was drinking on his own back in Republic City, and Ling had sympathised and guided Mako kindly so much that it was like having his limbs wrenched off slowly. The second part was that he felt he could’ve stopped the entire problem before it began if he’d been more attentive. Mako told the others about how he had been fooled, but none of them blamed him at all. They didn’t consider themselves any better.

Mako had decided to stay in Ba Sing Sae a little longer, or rather, he couldn’t leave Bolin all on his own. They were the only two living in the apartment now, and Mako didn’t want Bolin to succumb to same darkness that had turned him suicidal. The school had been cancelled immediately, of course, which meant that neither of them had work, but the money from the classes would last them for another nine months easily, rent and groceries, everything. It felt like blood money to Bolin, but Mo had talked him around to using it until they were capable of supporting themselves otherwise.

The regular flow of life that Bolin had gotten used to over the last year or so had suddenly stopped. He felt stagnant, hungry, and cold all the time. He wanted to deny everything that had happened so badly, but he just couldn’t. The image of Ling’s dead body was burnt into his mind. Bolin felt that if Ling appeared in front of him right there and then, he wouldn’t believe it. He had hung onto false hope for so long when he was a child that his mum and dad would come back miraculously, but they never did. He had come to learn the hard way, at that young age, that it was the hope that really twisted the knife.

The image of a blade piercing through Ling replayed in Bolin’s mind for the hundredth time. The faces of the men from Omashu were all shrouded in darkness, all blurry. It was only Ling’s ghastly features that-

 _Stop it!_ Bolin forced himself, shaking his head wildly. He couldn’t break down here, in public. He focused all of his attentions on his surroundings, which seemed so bleak now. Every scuttle, tap, crunch, pop, rattle, slap, clap, whimper, resonated in his ears. It was as if they were echoing around in the hollow shell that his body was now.

Every harsh feeling on Bolin’s body was amplified too. His shoulder ached constantly, and would keep on doing so for another ten days, while every itch felt like a burning rash. His stomach wanted to cave in with the thousand calories he’d eaten in the last two days, but whenever he looked at anything other than water, Bolin wanted to vomit. He stumbled through the mourning streets, walking in a haze.

Bolin tried to think of all the good times he had spent with Ling, to cherish them fondly rather than be sorrowful because he was… gone, his body being held in a freezing chamber so it was preserved until further notice. He thought about the thousand times Ling had made him burst out laughing, or even just smiled contently.

Bolin thought about the hundreds of hours Ling had dedicated to the destination of reaching their dream. He thought about how Ling hilariously failed to get with women, his cringey pick-up lines nearly making the others suffocate with laughter. He thought about how Ling never jumped on the opportunity to go to town on someone when they messed up their argument, but just calmly proved them wrong, even though he was capable of humiliating them, so much that they wouldn’t even want to look at their reflection in the mirror after.

But all these thoughts came back to one scene, one horribly graphic scene.

The thrust.

The sudden freezing motion.

The look down.

The expression of realisation.

The removal of the blade.

The defeated action of falling onto his knees.

The drop of his body onto the ground.

The look-

“STOP IT!” Bolin yelled, clutching his head, banging it repeatedly off the ground, like a madman. He got a few looks from the people around him, but no-one judged him. Everyone knew what he was going through in one way or another.

Bolin rolled around crazily on the ground for the next minute or so, before he regained his sense of place and time. He groggily pushed himself up, noticing that the building he was going to was just up ahead, where he had met Meng nearly a year ago now. He checked for the money in his pocket, which was still there, then begrudgingly continued.

Bolin wandered in through the front doors of the lobby, the usually busy entrance dead quiet. The clerk at the desk stared straight ahead of himself, trying to keep professional. But Bolin saw the tremor in his lips as he walked up to the desk.

“I’ve got rent to hand in,” Bolin told him, taking the money out as proof. He held his ID card up for the man.

“Go,” the man said flatly. He was clearly dealing with a personal loss himself. Bolin nodded briefly, then walked up the stairs to the third floor, where Meng's office was. Mo usually paid the rent, but as he was away, it was up to Bolin. The eerie silence threatened to strangle Bolin as he knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Meng's voice accepted abruptly, and Bolin opened the door, stepped in and closed it behind him. He made eye contact with the woman almost immediately as he turned around.

“You!” she snarled immediately. Bolin was taken aback out of his mood temporarily as Meng got up from behind her desk. “You BASTARD! It’s all your fault!” She started marching up to him, fury in her eyes. She looked a mess, her hair wiry and her usual plethora of makeup gone. She grabbed him by his shirt collar.

“What’s your problem?” Bolin snapped, trying to push her hands off of him, but her grip was like iron. Bolin tried to step away from her, as he didn’t know what to make of the situation yet.

“It’s all _YOUR_ fault!” she repeated, and slapped him as hard as she could across the face. The force of it wasn’t too strong, but her nails dug it, drawing blood. The small cut added to the four scars Bolin already had littered on his face already. “I’LL KILL YOU!” she cried, not lacking vigour.

“Why?!” Bolin demanded, managing to wrench her fingers off of the hem of his shirt, but tearing it down the middle simultaneously. He pulled the money he owed out of his pocket, holding it out to her. He definitely didn’t feel like it, but went against his emotions, showing that he had come to pay rent.

“You think you can pay me to forget about it?!” she challenged. “You insolent little prick!” She slapped the money out of his hand, scattering it all over the office, and came after him.

What happened? he thought as she swiped at him continuously, chasing him all over the office. The young lavabender batted her feeble attempts away without a second thought, but her mood troubled him. The only other two times he’d come to pay rent, she’d been strictly professional and friendly. Assaulting a customer didn’t fit either of those words' descriptions.

“Meng, what did I do!?” Bolin demanded, catching both her wrists and holding them above her head. She tried to kick at him, but clearly wasn’t very skilled at fighting.

“You’re responsible!” she reiterated, her voice slowing changing to that of a mad woman. “If I’d never met you, my son would still be alive right now!”

Bolin’s snappy attitude went out the window.

“He… what?” Bolin asked, his face dropping. His grip began to loosen on her wrists as she struggled.

“He fucking died yesterday under YOUR supervision!” Meng hammered in. “YOUR supervision. I had to watch yesterday as my boy’s limbs were packed into a coffin, SEPARATELY! Can you even begin to imagine how much agony I felt?!” She spat in his face as she talked, but Bolin didn’t even feel it.

“I-I-I…” Bolin stuttered, stumbling back, his eyes widening. “I had no idea. I cuh-cuh-cuh, I can’t begin to tell you how-“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” she screamed, beginning to sob. “Don’t give me any of that bullshit! You're one of the most renowned lavabenders in the entire Earth Kingdom! When you were barely an adult, Kuivera had you as one of her right-hand assistants! You should’ve seen this coming! Don’t pretend you never thought they could invade at any given time!” Bolin let go of her completely, and she started slapping him repeatedly on the face. Bolin stood there, frozen, as he realised how he hadn’t even had the decency to apologise to any of the parents yet.

“Meng, I lost a friend too…” he began, but then felt that the loss of Ling paled in comparison to this woman’s experience. She had raised that child ever since he was a little baby, only for him to be ripped away, and returned in several different pieces. Bolin’s sentence fell apart midway through as she continued to beat him.

He tripped over something on the floor, a tiny bin, and fell on his ass. He looked up, terrified, to the grieving woman grabbing a lamp. Tears flowed down her enraged face as she threw it at Bolin. He covered his face with his hands, but it clattered off of his injured shoulder. He grunted, shielding it, but only trembled as she came up to him again and started slapping him harder, her motherly love in each of the strikes. Bolin didn’t shield himself from the slaps, letting her vent all her frustrations on him, his guilt overwhelming.

A tear trickled down his cheek, but it wasn’t from the pain. Her strikes, although not lacking in conviction, genuinely didn’t hurt that much. It was the cutting edge of the fact that the blood of her son was in his hands. Maybe not in the eyes of the law, maybe not in the eyes of the soldiers from Omashu. But in his own heart, he was crippled by what he saw as his failure.

“Meng, what are you doing!?” a man who burst into the room demanded. He rushed over, and pulled her back from beating Bolin, who was huddled, holding his knees, shaking. Another two men came in, hearing all the commotion, and helped pull her away. She screamed blue murder, trying to squirm out of their grasp, but they were all too strong for her.

Bolin suddenly felt something in his heart twitch. Something dark. A sensation he had never felt before. His sorrow for Ling and his overwhelming guilt for Meng’s son, condensed into a tiny ball. A moment or two passed as Meng was pulled out the doorway while it transformed, then slowly spread throughout his veins, sending goosebumps all along his skin. It was wretched, evil, no emotion Bolin had really ever felt before. It crossed his mind that this might’ve have been how Mako felt when he came face-to-face with Kenichi Shinoda.

The unbreakable kinship that Bolin had shared with Ling was somehow lost in the transition as a bottomless anger boiled Bolin’s blood. He stood up slowly. He had one ambition now, brought on by recent events.

“Meng!” he called out desperately, tumbling out of the office after her. “Meng, wait! I have something I need to tell you!”

The three men who were getting elbowed and kneed halted, and looked at Bolin in a confused manner as he ran in front of them, bursting to say something. Meng started struggling even more when she saw Bolin right in front of her.

“Please forgive her behaviour, she’s had an incredibly rough week, as we all have,” one of the men tried to excuse her, but Bolin waved it away instantly.

“I know there is nothing I can do to bring your son back,” Bolin started, his emotions tripping over themselves to get out, “but I promise, he won’t die and be forgotten!”

“How?!” she growled, chomping at the bit to be let loose. “Why would I trust you anymore?!”

“Give me a minute,” Bolin excused himself, running back into her office, an idea coming into his head. He ran back out thirty seconds later, a pair of scissors in his hand. He took a deep breath, and dug the tip of the scissors deep into the palm of his hand.

“What are you doing!?” one of the men cried out, exasperated and dumbstruck. Even Meng calmed down a bit as she stared at him in bewilderment, as Bolin continued the incision, grimacing as he went from side to side. Soon, a three-inch wide cut spanned across his hand.

“I vow,” Bolin growled, baring his teeth, holding up his dripping red palm for all of them to see, “that Omashu will learn the full repercussions of their actions! I will join the army and melt their city to the ground! They will rue the day they murdered my innocent lavabending students! This cut will remind me about the anguish you and I experienced from an unprovoked attack! Any time I start to lose sight of the destination, this cut will remind me what you’ve had to go through!”

With that, Bolin turned on his heel and marched to the stairs.

* * *

  
“ _What_?!!” Mako exclaimed as he heard Bolin inform him of his new decision. “Say that again!”

“I’m joining the army to fight against Omashu!” Bolin repeated clearly. “Why aren’t you happy?”

“Why amn't I happy?” Mako asked, exasperated, throwing his hands up in the air. “Why amn’t I happy? There are too many obvious answers to that!”

“Tell me then,” Bolin challenged Mako, his arms crossed. He had washed the cut on his hand, which had dyed his entire palm a shade of crimson.

“First of all,” Mako started, holding out a finger and tapping it, “this is a foreign war! We’ve got nothing to do with it, the actions of these egotistical prime ministers or kings don’t think about our well-being for one second! We didn’t like accepting the war clause in the terms, but we only did it on the preface that war wouldn’t break out in the first place. In fact, you were the most annoyed out of any of us! Why have you decided to do this?”

“It’s a situation no-one ever wishes to be in, Mako,” Bolin stated, looking his older brother dead in the eyes, “but this isn’t something we can just shove under the rug! I’ve been dealing with Ling’s death for the last week, and I don’t expect to get over it any time soon. You’ve been distraught as well, haven’t you?”

“Of course,” Mako said quietly, his mind turning to darker thoughts as his friend who had come to a violent end entered his thoughts.

“Well, earlier on today, I went to pay rent for the apartment,” Bolin told Mako, “and I met Meng. Remember how we got this apartment reserved, because her son wanted to attend these lavabending classes?”

Mako pursed his lips anxiously; he could tell where the story was headed.

“Last week, her son got blown to pieces in front of my very eyes!” Bolin continued, gesturing wildly. His stomach lurched at the thought of the sickening event. “Maybe it hasn’t sunk in for you just yet, because you didn’t see it happen. But when you woke up, you saw all their limbs scattered about! That was gruesome, you know that, because I saw you nearly faint! If I don’t take action and stand up for my former students, then I’m no better than the soldiers from Omashu!” Mako rubbed his temples, his heart pounding.

“That’s nonsense!” Mako rebuffed, regarding his only sibling with a confused look. “You, Ling, Nel and Mo all stood up for the children, it was never your fault! Was it Ling’s fault?”

“What are you saying?!” Bolin demanded, stepping closer to Mako. “Don’t you ever disrespect Ling like that!”

“I wasn’t,” Mako told Bolin affirmatively. “Ling died a hero, buying enough time for the remaining children by laying down his own life! It could very nearly have been you that died, because you were both fighting side-by-side for the same thing, for crying out loud, so how can it be your fault?! If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine for not asking someone to come along with me to check out five mysterious vans that appeared out of nowhere, and letting them take me hostage! If it weren’t for you guys, I’d probably be in some prison by now. So stop lying to yourself for whatever stupid reason you really have!”

“It’s not stupid!” Bolin shouted, not budging. “Nel could very well be dead right now, if he was a tiny bit more unfortunate. Are you saying that you don’t care about the countless dead we’ve lost!? Because it’s sounding a lot like that to me.”

“No!” Mako responded, disgusted at the suggestion. “Ling was one of my best friends, if not my best friend, and what sane human doesn’t care about fifteen children that were murdered because of some stupid inter-city power issue?! What’s gotten into you?”

“Only a clear motive,” Bolin answered, breathing in and out heavily through his nose. “I’m in a position of power to right the wrong that’s just been dealt to the numerous grieving parents, as well as ourselves.”

“What’s your motive, then?” Mako asked, rubbing his eyes, desperate to make Bolin see his point of view.

“I’m going to use my lavabending to melt their city to the ground!” he declared, holding out his palm for Mako to see the cut. “They’re not getting off easily with this!”

Mako wanted to smash a glass from the table just beside him, to let out a little of the cumulative exasperation and frustration from what Bolin was saying to him, but held it in. He took a few deep breaths, planning out his response carefully, then faced Bolin again after pacing in circles around the apartment.

“Bolin,” Mako began, “I do understand where you’re coming from, and it is a very valid argument. I can see that.”

“Exactly!” Bolin exclaimed, pointing at Mako.

“But,” he continued, “you’re making a rash decision in the heat of the moment. It was a rash impulse driven by my anger that made me punch you after I killed Kenichi Shinoda. That split us apart, and part of the reason I came to Ba Sing Sae was to spend time with you again. I also wanted to make my mistake up to you by helping you realise your calling.” He clutched his chest, just over his heart, with both hands. “It’s been tearing away at me ever since Ling was killed, right here. I’d do nearly anything to bring him back, but going to war in response to that is the complete opposite of what Ling would’ve wanted!

“I know that you’re hurting badly,” Mako went on, his voice threatening to crack. “Everyone’s been rocked horribly in the city, and everybody is extremely confused as to how they feel. But two wrongs don’t make a right! Even if you don’t kill anyone directly, 'melting' the city, as you put it, will just increase the suffering that will inevitably ravage both sides! What comes around, goes around…” Mako kept going, then slapped himself on the forehead as what he meant to say came out completely the opposite way. “Wait-“

“There!” Bolin pounced, shaking with anger. “You’ve just said it yourself! You can’t deny it, not to me even if you insist on doing it yourself!”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” Mako told Bolin. “What I wanted to express was that all the pain and suffering will be passed around both sides much worse than it is right now, and I don’t want my little brother getting stuck in the middle of it! They specifically targeted you because of how strong a lavabender you are, and will give you special attention on the battlefield. You’re a dead man if you sign up, you have to think about this! This isn’t what Ling would’ve wanted, you can’t see it because you’ve blinded yourself with hatred!”

“I'm honouring Ling’s memory and all of our murdered students by doing this!” Bolin growled, and the two argued intensely for another hour, neither being moved in the slightest. Mako’s anger from all that had happened recently threatened to direct itself at Bolin. He refused to let that happen though.

“If anything, I’m disappointed that you’re not leaping at the chance to join me!” Bolin retorted stubbornly, ready to fight. “Give me one good reason why you shouldn’t!”

“I have a daughter that I haven’t seen in over a year!” Mako cried out. “I refuse to die until I’ve been forgiven by Korra and hold Kalla! If any of other arguments really haven’t changed you, not even what Opal will think of your decision, then consider this: we’ve only been honest with each other before because we know that until recently, we were all either of us had in the world. In general!” Mako added, as Bolin started to say something.

“Yes,” he agreed.

“And you’ve told me that you can't wait to meet your niece for the very first time, on numerous occasions,” Mako continued.

“That goes without saying,” Bolin said openly. “Who wouldn’t be?”

“I’ve already made plenty of mistakes as a father,” Mako started, “even though I’ve only ever held her once for a few minutes. You will be her godfather, if Korra agrees, which she definitely will - you two have both always gotten on, no matter what's been happening with the rest of us, so there’s no doubt in my mind about that. I know from the bottom of my heart that you’ll always be looking out for Kalla, however you can. Because of that, I know that you’ll be able to tell me, without fear of how I react, that I’m fucking up, if you ever see it. If that doesn’t change your mind, I don’t know what will.”

Mako’s arms fell down by his sides, exhausted, as Bolin took a few seconds to contemplate this. It was the first sign of relenting he’d shown the entire time.

“I can’t wait to see her,” Bolin stated, getting Mako’s hopes up. “After the war is settled.” Mako’s heart sank. All of his arguments had been used, and his energy was sapped. He sighed, defeated. He only had one thing left to say, as Bolin set the stage for it unintentionally.

“Anything else you want to say,” Bolin offered, but certainly wasn't expecting the answer he got.

“Yes,” Mako answered. “If there’s no way I can convince you not to go, then very well. But, in that case, I’m coming with you.”

“Whatever you…” Bolin started, then stopped. His right eyebrow curled up in disbelief. “Wait, what?”

“I’m coming with you,” Mako repeated, crystal clear.

“You’re coming with me?” Bolin asked.

“Yes,” Mako confirmed. “I’m joining the army with you.” Bolin didn’t jump at the news, because he’d just spent the last hour intensely beating away Mako’s response to his new decision.

“Why?” he asked, suspiciously. “It’s not like you to have a sudden change of heart when you’ve set your mind to something.”

“I’m not doing it because I hate Omashu,” Mako emphasized. “I despise the people that came from Omashu last week, but they don’t represent everyone in the city, and therefore, not the city itself.” He placed a loving hand on his younger brother's shoulder. “I’m doing it to protect you. I have a horrible feeling that something bad will happen to you if I leave are you on your own.”

“I can protect myself fine,” Bolin told Mako. “You know that, better than most.”

“I don’t care,” Mako said. “If I have to go to war to protect my family, I will. It’s not a decision that should be taken lightly, and I haven’t. In fact, I’m going to think about it a lot before we officially sign up. There’s a very good chance I will reconsider, because I really don’t want to be doing this.”

“You’ll probably be in a different regiment, because you’re a firebender, and I’m a lavabender,” Bolin tested Mako’s resolve.

“I don’t care, I’ll be there when you need me,” Mako said definitively. With that, he walked over to the armchair, and plopped himself down on it. “We’ll give it a week before we go to the registration office. Just so you know, there's absolutely no shame in taking back your word, at any time. Remember that.”

“I will,” Bolin replied. A few moments of awkward silence passed, before Bolin excused himself to go to the toilet just so he could get away.

 _Fuckin' hell,_ Mako thought as he rested. _Why does the universe always shoot me down whenever things are going right_?


	42. Confrontation

Korra did some jumping jacks to warm herself up. It was dawn, a cold morning, as was the norm nowadays. She’d gotten her tattoo what Azula said was two weeks ago, the ink having took four days to permanently dry in. The training was still as harsh as before, and as of yet, Korra hadn’t made any progress with being able to split her bullet into two. She knew that it would take a long time before she’d get even a grasp of how difficult it really was, though, so she didn’t mind.

Azula had demonstrated twice in training how to do it. Over the course of the new training, Azula didn’t nearly berate Korra as much as she used to. She seemed genuinely… proud that Korra could actually learn it. Azula admitted how difficult it was, which was weird, considering how big her ego was. She told Korra that it took four times as much out of you as one bullet on its own. Korra saw how much of a strain it took on Azula, who was possibly the most natural firebender Korra had ever seen, which really gave perspective.

Azula’s movements were so fluid and graceful, her technique elegant. She had more trouble getting her hair to stay in place than producing fire from her fingertips. Generally, when she walked around, she was stiff, and slow. But when she firebent, all the tightness and aches in the old lady’s joints seemingly loosened up and allowed her to dance. Even after three decades of not producing a single spark, she was better than any firebender Korra had ever come across.

Korra opened her front door and yawned. She was wearing her usual Fire Nation getup, which she’d worn practically every day ever since she arrived. The twenty-three-year-old had lost her concept of time completely, which admittedly did help focus on training, but was surprised when she was told that she wasn’t even gone a year. It felt like two or three. She wondered how the rest of the world was doing without her, and more importantly, how was Kalla doing?

 _I swear it won’t be too much longer, sweetheart_ , Korra promised mentally, although it was more like a prayer. She had a burning desire just to even spend a day with her daughter, to see how much she had grown, had she said her first words, could she crawl yet, etc. If there had been any spirit vines on the island, Korra probably could’ve located her, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Korra touched her toes, goosebumps rippling across her skin as the warmth of her small home was lost to the outside. Korra fiddled with her bun, making sure that it was in place. She shut her door, mentally preparing herself for another session. There had been one very pleasant improvement in her day-to-day life now, which she still couldn’t get over the giddy feeling of.

The islanders didn’t try to make her feel like shit every time she walked by them. Granted, they were never going to like her, no matter what she did, but ever since they saw the tattoo, they didn’t say anything to her. Korra still got the occasional loathing look, but it was a testimony to the island that it commanded respect all on its own. Another combustion bender had even complemented her on her quick progress. A complement!

Korra hummed, shaking all the looseness out of her limbs, then peered at the meeting point in the distance. She was trying something new out for the third morning in a row, the time of the day when she had the most energy, and was refreshed. Korra pointed her finger guns at the ground, taking steady, even breaths. 

She blasted fire out of her heels and fingers, slowly rising off the ground, not hurrying. She elevated herself to seven metres high easily enough, then upped the power.

Korra flew over to the top of the stairs, only taking a minute or two to do so. She landed comfortably, slowing her descent with perfect timing. The young Avatar reckoned that she could hold her rockets up at a good altitude for five minutes if she wanted to, but hadn’t yet had the chance to experiment. The force required to lift her body off the ground was extremely intense, and keeping it all controlled in small rockets so that she didn’t lay waste to whatever was below her was essential too.

She was about to go over to her favourite rock to sit on, as Azula wasn’t there, but then noticed that the doors weren’t actually closed. That meant that Azula must’ve gone on a walk, as she was able to open the doors by herself now. It wasn’t a regular occurrence, but Korra didn’t particularly mind. She decided to go look for Azula, as she felt impatient.

“Where can I start?” Korra murmured, not knowing Azula’s preferences. It would’ve seemed strange to an outsider given how much time they had spent together, but Azula didn’t like meaningless conversations to pass the time, which was fine by Korra.

Korra’s ears perked up as she heard a scream further down the island, from a girl. 

_That’s strange,_ Korra thought _. These guys would only tell someone that they have a broken bone because they have to._

It was a general rule on the island not to show pain, and even though there were always people shouting out of exertion, it was the first time in a good while Korra had genuinely heard a scream like that.

“I won’t help them if I associate myself with them,” Korra said, deciding to leave it be. It might have seemed heartless, but no-one was nice to her, so she had no reason to be nice back. In fact, it was a kindness in itself that she didn’t beat them up. But then she heard Azula’s hoarse voice pierce the screams, giving out, and Korra sighed. It was early even for Azula to be giving out. That usually took place an hour into the morning session.

“I'll go check it out,” Korra muttered, figuring she had nothing better to do. She hovered down the steps with her rockets, since she’d fallen down them numerous times, landing at the bottom with only a tiny stumble. She walked at a hard pace as the screams continued, getting louder by the second. By the time Korra had rounded the corner and saw Tatsuo regarding whatever was happening with his hands behind his back, she was quite nervous.

“What’s going on?” Korra asked, walking up to Tatsuo and looking in the direction he was paying attention. She stopped suddenly in her tracks, her heart leaping into her mouth.

There was a young girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen, with her elbows and knees on the ground, crying out in pain. She was barely able to keep herself from collapsing. Korra guessed that she would’ve been very good-looking normally, but her face was scrunched up in agony, tears dropping to the ground. The back of her t-shirt was burnt off, the dark red shade of her burnt skin and blood horrifically matching her hair. She was trembling with no doubt a flurry of emotions, all unpleasant, as the beating continued.

“YOU WILL LEARN TO RESPECT ME!” Azula demanded as she continuously beat her blue fire whip onto the girl's back. She looked furious. “HOW DARE YOU DEFY ME?”

“What’s going on?!” Korra interrogated Tatsuo, shocked. She’d known that the methods of this island could be extreme, but she’d never experienced anything near this level of punishment. She still didn’t get on with Tatsuo, but she put her personal preferences aside for the time being

“She didn’t give the Master the full respect she deserved,” Tatsuo stated sternly. “And when the girl refused to take her beating by bending the Master’s fire whip, she brought this punishment down on herself.” Korra could tell that he wasn’t 100% on board, though, when she saw him gulp.

“Master Azula, she’s had enough!” Korra called out, putting her neck on the line. The ten or so people that were standing around, witnessing the flogging, all sharply turned their attention to her.

“What?!” Azula demanded, a look of disgust on her face as she turned around.

“I said she’s had enough!” Korra repeated. “She’s about to pass out, I think she’s learnt her lesson.”

“Avatar, don’t get-“ Tatsuo started, but was cut off by Azula.

“Don’t go getting involved in other people's business,” the old lady warned, her whip blazing brightly. All the onlookers stepped away, not wanting to be something Azula could direct her rage at. Behind Azula, the girl shook as she tried her hardest to stay up. Her effort was admirable for a few seconds, but she inevitably collapsed on the ground with a whimper, unable to move.

“She needs help!” Korra urged, gesturing desperately to the girl lying motionless on the ground. “She could get all types of infections if we just leave her there!” The girl began to pass out, which worried Korra even more. “She’s about to black out!”

“You’re right,” Azula agreed menacingly, and turned on her heel, facing the girl again. Her fire whip dissipated as she put her hands behind her back, standing over the burnt and bleeding redhead. “Now, what is your name, girl?”

“Azami,” the girl answered, making Korra’s heart freeze. She’d pretty much supressed most of her memories of Asami due to guilt, but now that she thought of it, this girl did have a few similarities, like the way they styled their hair, and their general appearance. Korra’s heart heaved turbulently as the memory of her break-up came flooding back, just as the sound of Asami’s name.

“Asami, was it?” Azula asked.

“Azami,” the girl corrected weakly. “With a 'z'.”

“Azami,” Azula began. “What have you learnt just now through an unnecessary amount of force?”

“I must not disrespect any of my superiors,” the girl named Azami started. “And I… I… I…” she tried to continue.

“Spit it out!” Azula ordered. “Or else you’re getting another ten lashes!”

“I…” Azami continued, trying to look at Azula, but then, the worst possible thing happened to her. She retched, then threw up half a pint of blood violently, shuddering. Azula may not have minded had it been on the ground, but as it happened, Azami threw up right on Azula’s boots.

“You, you…” Azula trailed off, as she stared down at her boots, the disgust on her face transforming into hate. “You… CRETIN!” Azula tried to shake the blood off of her boots, but it sank in immediately. Azula nearly had a stroke for the next minute, as she kept on shaking her feet to get the blood off, to no avail.

“Master, I’m, so, sorry,” Azami muttered, barely capable of putting sentences together. “I-“

“YOU CRETIN!” Azula howled again. “YOU FILTHY, SCUM OF THE EARTH, YOU-“ Azula was lost as how to express her vehement fury, for the first time ever in Korra’s experience. “I’LL MAKE YOU PAY!”

Azula formed an even brighter whip than before, and brought it crashing down repeatedly upon Azami's back as she unleashed her power on the helpless girl. Korra’s instincts were screaming to help the girl, but she held back for some reason. She didn’t know why, but maybe it was because Azula was her teacher, and was afraid of what might happen to her if she intervened.

“Has this been going on the entire time I’ve been here?!” Korra asked Tatsuo quietly, horrified as the girl wailed.

“It’s how things used to be done,” Tatsuo answered, not giving Korra any stick for once, “but the end result was that we scared away a lot of new recruits, so I… relaxed the policy slightly. Everything went smoothly, so I didn’t mention it to the Master.” Korra could tell that even he, Azula’s most loyal servant, her right-hand man, was uncomfortable with this.

“Tell Azula that the girl has had enough!” Korra told him. “She’ll listen to you, surely!” 

Korra’s panic rose even more as the girl’s whelps grew weaker and weaker with every strike. The other islanders watched on without any comments. They weren’t nodding along with this either. The girl made eye contact with an undecided Korra, while blubbering an apology for Azula. Korra was itching to help, and eventually, she couldn’t stand back any longer.

“That’s enough, Azula!” she shouted angrily, drawing all pairs of eyes to herself again. “She’s had enough, look at her back! There’s no point in wasting your time or energy on her anymore.”

The girl named Azami was on the brink of death, by the looks of it. Her back was in tatters, a gruesome plane of blood and burns. Korra could literally see the burnt pieces of skin on the ground, that’s how bad it was. The girl tried to move, but just moaned as her pain flared at the slightest movement anywhere in her body. Her voice was gone from crying, and she couldn’t speak even if she wanted to.

“Very well,” Azula agreed, wiping her brow. “Let’s proceed with your training. Come along.” The former heir to the Fire Nation throne started walking back to the usual arena where Korra trained. She strolled past Korra casually, as if she’d just watered her plants. Meanwhile, everyone else was leaving Azami on her own.

“She’s going to die if we don’t treat that immediately!” Korra told Azula, throwing her hands up in the air. “You hardly still expect her to treat her back on her own, still?”

“It’s about sending a message,” Azula stated, regarding Korra with a careless look. “The only reason you’ve never gotten that is because you’ve generally been an excellent student the whole way through.”

“Would it have anything to do with the other thing?” Korra hinted heavily, not moving. “I talked back to you plenty of times, and I’m doing it right now. So why don’t you flog me?”

“You’re _very_ enthusiastic,” Azula stated dryly, but there was malice in her tone. “You’re welcome to try it. Now come along, I don’t like to be kept waiting. Leave her in the dirt.”

Korra stood there pensively for a minute, torn between doing her duty as the Avatar to help those in need, and wary of stepping over the line. She was under no illusion that most of the islanders would jump at the opportunity to kill her, and by openly disobeying Azula, she wouldn’t be helping herself. But there was a bloodied teenager right next to her, and one of the islanders nearby was carrying a bucket of water. She could tell that Azula was the only person who found this okay.

“I’ll catch up to you,” Korra told Azula, and reached out for the water in the bucket. She pulled it towards herself, holding it suspended just in front of her palm as she knelt down by Azami. Korra pressed the water over the burnt region, which was literally all of Azami's back, and it glowed. She was a tiny bit rusty at waterbending, but got the hang of it back in just a few seconds. She got a lot of mixed looks, people unsure what to think about her waterbending. There was one person who was absolute in what she thought about it, though.

“KORRA!” Azula bellowed, causing the water-tribe girl to jump even though she had expected the response. “What in spirits name are you doing!?”

“Saving a young girl,” Korra answered, calm again, as Azami passed out, all the contrasting pressures on her back too much for her to cope with. “I know what I’m about to say will land me in trouble, but what you’ve just done is abusing your power. I didn’t listen to most of my superiors when I was her age, but look at me now, I think I’ve turned out alright. There’s no need for this harsh a punishment.”

Korra finished her healing, but still grimaced at the result. There was only one layer of pink, thin skin, which looked like it would snap at any moment. She wasn’t happy with it but unfortunately, it would have to do. She faced Azula, who was fuming.

“What does this tattoo mean to you!?” Azula demanded, walking up and poking the combustion bender tattoo on Korra’s forehead. “Because it doesn’t belong to a waterbender, I can tell you that for sure!”

“It means I have been recognised as someone who is capable of combustion bending,” Korra replied, pissed off at Azula herself, “by two or more combustion benders. That was you and Tatsuo, wasn’t it?”

Korra felt the atmosphere change from the onlookers as she talked back to Azula. One of them even covered her mouth in shock.

“You should learn your place, _seal_!” Azula insulted Korra, leaving the young woman to struggle to contain her anger from the racist jibe. “Bend over and prepare yourself for the beating of a lifetime!”

“No!” Korra retorted, drawing a few gasps. “I’m not submissing to your outdated rules! In fact, you should change them!” Korra felt she was dangerously on the tipping point of pushing Azula over the edge.

“I should change my rules?” Azula repeated, offended by the suggestion. “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”

“I do!” Korra stated matter-of-factly, putting her hands on her hips.

“How do you plan on making me turn to your way of thinking, huh?” Azula questioned, her blue tattoo looking extremely threatening up close.

“You tell me,” Korra challenged. “Any type of challenge.” She only realised how open that was to answering a second after she’d said it. Burn an orphanage down, or kill the Fire Lord, was what she immediately expected.

But she was rocked by what Azula came out with a few seconds later.

“There’s a very simple way to settle this, actually,” Azula told Korra. “The stronger firebender should have the say on how this island is governed, don’t you think?” Korra didn’t reply. “In that case, I think an Agni Kai would fit the bill perfectly!”

Korra blinked, unsure of what she had just heard despite Azula being very articulate. “Pardon?”

“You heard me right,” Azula said, staring Korra dead in the eyes, “an Agni Kai!”

“An Agni Kai?” Korra repeated. “How serious?”

“Your usual competitive Agni Kai,” Azula said. “To the death.” Those last three words really dropped the bomb, whispering breaking out between the islanders, who usually didn’t talk to each other. Even Tatsuo was shocked by it.

“That’s a bit far, don’t you think?” Korra asked, holding up her hands. “I mean, it’s a rule that you’d probably forget about in a week. And let’s say I do kill you, who rules the island then? And what about my training?”

“You rule the island,” Azula answered without hesitation. “I have the ability to decline it, of course, and it isn’t dishonourable for me to decline a challenge, if I don’t see it worth my time. As for your training, it is equally as good to my legacy if no-one else learns how to split their combustion bullet. I won’t let you soil my reputation!”

Korra wanted to back out of the situation she’d just got herself into so badly, but Azula was really showing her up. She didn’t care what the islanders thought of her in their day-to-day lives, but when she looked over to Azami, she was torn.

There was no way Korra wanted to rule this island, no way at all. She couldn’t wait to get off the island to the rest of the world, even if she was still wanted in prison in most places. She knew that the rest of the island would never accept her, and that someone like Tatsuo could probably take her power away in a day if he really wanted to, should she become ruler. 

Korra also had no right to be telling Azula how to run her own society, she wasn’t even on Crescent Island a full year, if she was correct. There was a huge drug operation that she had admittedly turned a blind eye to, but controlling the island would mean all the crimes of that would fall on her shoulders. The young Avatar knew that she wasn’t in too many people’s good books ever since the episode at South Pole, but she planned to win them back one day.

On the other hand, Azula was merciless, and didn’t have a shred of sympathy for others. Korra knew right there and then that if she ignored it this one time, there probably wouldn’t be anyone to save the next victim. Korra hadn’t always been a perfect Avatar, but she had never purposely let someone die without trying to do something about it. She had avoided murdering people, and things had generally turned out okay since, ignoring any damage that she suffered herself. The one exception was maybe her uncle, Unalok, at Harmonic Convergence, but that was different, given how he had already bonded with Vaatu by that point.

Korra looked back and forth between Azami and Azula. Obey authority, or help a girl in need? Then, Kyoshi’s words from the time she had visited Kyoshi Island struck her:

 _Rulers of all kinds must obey your authority as the Avatar_ , Kyoshi’s words echoed in her head. That gave Korra the answer she needed.

“Azula,” she commanded, squaring up to the old woman. “I am the Avatar, and you will respect my wishes. Abolish the rule now!”

“You don’t command jack shit on this island!” Azula replied. She usually would’ve made fun of Korra for saying something like that to her, but Azula wasn’t feeling humorous in the slightest today. “What will it be, hmm?”

Korra carefully considered what she said next for a few seconds, before coming out with it.

“I’ll fight you!” Korra declared, resulting in even Tatsuo taking a step back. “Master Azula, I challenge you to an Agni Kai!”

“I accept,” Azula stated, glaring intently at Korra. “We’ll duel to the death at midday, today, for the leadership of the island. Just so you know, backing out of a challenge that one requested of another is punishable by death.”

“I'm well aware!” Korra responded, and stomped past her teacher, as well as Tatsuo. Already, just a few moments later, she was regretting her decision, but obviously couldn’t back out now. For the time being, she would go and have her morning porridge before anyone could potentially send word for it to be drugged.

This was going to be like nothing Korra had ever faced from a firebender yet.


	43. The Serpent's Will

Korra stood nervously in the Agni Kai arena she had spent so much of her time training in, with the person who stood twenty metres directly in front of her, ten metres from the centre circle each. They stared each other down coldly, Azula with an evil smile on her face. She was wearing a tight, long-sleeved red shirt, and black leggings to go with it. The bun that usually kept her up was gone, letting her surprisingly short hair drop. The ninety-year-old woman looked comfortable, in contrast to Korra’s pounding heart. It wasn’t helped by all the spectators.

Everyone on the island had come to this match. All two hundred or so had dropped whatever they were supposed to do, whether it be cooking or guard duty, to come witness the event. In Korra’s previous Agni Kai, everyone had been packed in tightly, but now, most were watching at a distance, as was the norm when two combustion benders fought. There were only forty people who stood around the edges of the arena, including Azami, surprisingly. The girl was barely capable of sitting up though, and wouldn’t make eye contact with Korra. She seemed to feel guilty, somehow.

The ref was none other than Tatsuo. His long, black hair glimmered in the weak sunlight as he wordlessly regarded both Korra and Azula. At first, Korra had thought that he wouldn’t be a fair ref, and she still thought that, but she soon realised that she couldn’t exactly be picky. Everyone hated her, even Azami to a certain degree, by the looks of it, so she would just have to suck it up.

The most unnerving thing, funnily enough, was that no-one gave her any disrespect when she made her way to the arena. No glares, no nothing. They all just seemed to feel sorry for her, which was extremely unnerving. They’d all been letting her know that they despised her every single day, so for them to feel pity must have meant Azula wasn’t the type to go easy.

 _It’s an Agni Kai to the death!_ Korra thought to herself _. Of course Azula won’t go easy on me!_

Tatsuo stretched his hands out, either nervous or excited himself. Korra tried to keep these intruding thoughts out of her mind as she continued to stare down Azula. Azula rolled her shoulders back, stretching all of her muscles. Korra had already done so back in her house, so she just stood there, taking deep breaths in and out through her nostrils.

“This is a challenge to the death, so very little is not allowed,” Tatsuo began, breaking the deafening silence. “Lightning is permitted, but any form of attack must come from your own body. You may use any means to defend yourself, so long as it does not include myself, or any spectators.

“Advice from spectators is allowed. If one wishes to forfeit during the match, they shall be killed as a consequence,” Tatsuo continued. Korra swore that what the ref back during her other Agni Kai was different, but she couldn’t remember what it was. Tatsuo’s next lines were definitely different from what Korra had heard the last time though:

“This is an official Agni Kai for leadership of the island,” Tatsuo said. “That means that there is only one option for this match to end. One must be killed by the other. Do you accept this challenge from Avatar Korra, Master?”

Korra’s heart sped up as Tatsuo mentioned the obligation to kill. She didn’t exactly have an ironed-out plan, but she did intend to render Azula incapable of fighting rather than kill her, however that may be. After that, she would see. Korra wasn’t sure that the islanders wouldn’t just accept their master being killed.

 _Easier said than done_ , Korra thought.

“I accept!” Azula declared, taking in a deep breath through her nose. Korra recognised what Azula was doing, and banished all doubts from her mind. She would have to go hard at Azula, mobility at Azula’s old age didn’t matter much for a combustion bender. Korra inhaled deeply through her nose.

“Begin!” Tatsuo announced from outside of the arena.

A small bullet of compressed fire shot out from Azula’s forehead immediately. Korra had been anticipating this though, and tensed her whole body up as her own bullet shot out of her new tattoo. She pinpointed it on Azula’s, and they met halfway. The two bullets exploded on contact, sending a shockwave throughout the arena that far exceeded the explosion. Korra’s hair rippled back from the force of it, and would’ve thrown her bun out of place anyway if she had it in. Korra sprinted to the side to get a better angle of Azula, then skidded to a stop. The twenty-three-year-old got into the correct stance and unleashed twin streams of blue flamethrowers, which joined together into one large flamethrower. It roared towards Azula, threatening to gobble her up.

“You know that’s not nearly enough to even faze me!” Azula laughed, taunting the one who had just granted the old woman her bending back. Azula held out a hand casually in front of her body, the flamethrower parting before her. She took another breath through her nose, and a bullet whizzed right through the heart of the blue flamethrower, not being slowed down in the slightest despite the effort Korra was putting into it.

 _Shit_! Korra thought as she sensed it coming right for her. The Avatar abandoned her efforts and dived to the inside of the arena with all her strength. Half a second later, the space she had been standing in exploded with a bang. Korra avoided the worst of it, but was still thrown onto her side, scraping her arm against the harsh rock. Korra didn’t let it distract it her though, and used her momentum to swing into three huge fire helicopter kicks. They sped out to meet Azula, enough force to blow up a house, but the firebending master just carelessly waved them away. The sheer heat caused most on the side lines to back away, but Azula had the opposite reaction.

“What’s that?!” she lambasted, as Korra jumped to her feet. “If you’re taking me for a joke, I’d warn you now to get serious. I don’t take kindly to that type of treatment.” The annoying thing was, Korra’s attacks were 90% of her full capabilities, yet Azula wasn’t even breaking a sweat.

 _I’ll have to go at her with intent to kill if I want to try get anything out of this match_ , Korra realised, amazed at how powerful this woman was. Katara was meant to be one of the best waterbenders in the world back in her day, yet Korra’s last memory of her was struggling to walk without the assistance of a stick. Azula hadn’t firebent for three decades, and yet she was holding Korra at arm’s length at the minute.

 _Imagine how hard it would’ve been for Aang back in her prime,_ Korra thought _. She must’ve been a right pain in the neck._

Korra stood up, staring Azula down, who had her hands on her hips, waiting for Korra’s next move. Korra decided to bring it to her, and started rotating her forearms, gathering lightning. She did seven rotations, the most she’d ever successfully managed to control in training. A huge amount of lighting started crackling around Korra, spreading eight metres in all directions, sizzling around her body. Azula raised an eyebrow, then got ready to redirect it. Korra touched her index and middle fingers together.

The water-tribe girl nearly fainted as she felt the enormous rush of energy enter her body. All of it was sucked into her stomach region, disappearing momentarily as Korra extended her right arm at Azula. Then, the entire force of it blitzed at Azula. It was a truly awe-inspiring sight to most of the people watching. The blue flash lit up the entire mountain side as Azula stared straight down the barrel of the gun.

Azula caught the lightning bolt as it zapped towards her, gritting her teeth as she struggled to contain the power. She took a few steps back as it fizzed around her, closing her eyes in concentration. One slip-up, one small mistake, and her frail heart would stop in an instant. Korra began to get a feel for the extent of Azula’s power.

Korra was then taken aback, however, as Azula’s expression was suddenly wiped from her face. The old lady smirked at Korra, her previous expression all an act to get Korra’s hopes up. Korra’s eyes widened, but there was no acting about her reaction, as Azula started dragging her fingers around the air while still holding the lightning Korra had shot at her. She gathered twice the electricity that Korra had, the immediate range of just the lightning traveling around her twenty metres in every direction. Everyone by the sides of the arena, including Tatsuo, started running away out of the zone. Even Azami managed a hobble.

Azula’s smirk grew into a wide, crazy grin as she touched her fingertips together, her hair flying all over the place, the crackling sound drilling into Korra’s ears. Korra shoved all external thoughts out of her mind as she prepared herself to redirect an energy nearly as strong as Kuivera’s spirit cannon through her body. She pointed all four of her index and middle fingers at Azula, not taking any chances. Azula made eye contact with Korra, then let loose her power.

“AGH!” Korra shouted as the lightning zapped right back at her. The width of the bolt was three times the size of Korra’s body as she absorbed it. Korra traced her left fingertips down her right arm, across her body, and then pointed them at the sky. She released the power as Azula continued to blast lightning at Korra. Six seconds passed from Korra catching it to Azula running out of juice. When the last volt passed through Korra’s fingers, she collapsed onto the ground on her hands and knees.

“What’s the matter?” Azula teased, although she was breathing heavily too. She clearly had intended to take Korra out with that strike. “Tired?”

“Are you trying to blow the whole mountain away?” Korra asked, not afraid of showing how much that had taken out of her. She’d never experienced anything nearly that exhilarating in her whole life, apart from when she had bonded with Raava right before Harmonic Convergence had ended. She pushed herself to her feet, feeling the static electricity riveting through the air. She heard gasps of amazement as she stood up.

“That’s impossible!”

“She should be burnt to a crisp!”

“She didn’t even go into the Avatar State!”

“Just you,” Azula answered Korra’s question, although secretly, she was a little unnerved that Korra was able to stand up so soon after that. She hid it when she spoke though; “Oh well, I’d expect nothing less from my personal student.”

Azula started gathering the static electricity from the air around her, getting enough for a standard bolt of lightning, in just a second or two. Korra didn’t sit around for round two though, and gathered the remaining lightning left.

The two women both blasted their bolts at each other, meeting mid-way. There was a brief moment where the two energies conjoined into a small ball of electricity, then zapped dozens of small bolts in every direction. Korra got a few static shocks, but only enough to make her skin crawl. She brushed it off easily, even though she was still feeling frail from the first shot from Azula, and she had dealt with that perfectly. Her opponent was unscathed, but Korra noticed how Azula’s shoulders sagged compared to her usual rigid form.

“You’re tired, I can tell!” Korra called the egotistical lady out. “I can go all day.” _I can’t keep up a lightning battle up though,_ she thought.

Without further comment, Korra shot an intense bullet of compressed fire out of her forehead, harrowing straight for Azula. How do you like that?

Korra found herself seriously wishing she wasn’t so cocky only one second later, as Azula shot out her own bullet. This would’ve been fine, except right at the last moment before contact with Korra’s bullet, it split into two. 

The first bullet collided with Korra’s bullet, exploding, but the second one made straight for the twenty-three-year-old. Korra dived out of the way just in time, the bullet exploding the spot she had been in, with intent to erase Korra from the face of the earth. A chunk of rock flipped over to her, nearly breaking Korra’s foot, but the young woman managed to pull her foot out of the way just in time.

Azula created two massive columns of blue fire, both twice as thick as her huge lightning bolt. She seemed to be playing, but Korra didn’t let her guard down, as Azula let them rumble down on top of the Avatar. Korra held her hands out above her head, the flames abruptly halting to a stop, never letting Azula out of her sight. Just as well too, as the old woman shot a combustion bending bullet at Korra, but Korra cancelled it out immediately with her own bullet, resulting in yet another large explosion in the middle of the arena. The floor was really getting torn up now.

“What’s the matter?” Korra called, holding her hands out as the dust settled. Splitting a combustion bending bullet into two had really taken a toll on Azula, who couldn’t hide the fact that she was panting. “Old age caught up to you? You seemed energetic enough earlier when you were beating that poor girl!”

“Silence!” Azula demanded, standing up straight again. “I will not be talked down to by the likes of you!”

“Fuckin' prove it then!” Korra shouted, and started running towards Azula. But instead of regular sprinting, rockets erupted out of her fingers and heels and she glided over. She got to within ten metres of Azula, but was forced to stop as Azula started shooting four medium sized fireballs every second at Korra from her finger tips. Korra was forced to retreat, graciously dancing out of harm’s way, knowing that the longer this fight dragged on, the more Azula would rapidly get drained compared to Korra, who still had galleons left in the tank.

As Azula’s barrage of fireballs slowed down, the newly recognised combustion bender erected a wall of blue fire just in front of her. Azula’s fireballs were soaked up easily by the wall, the heat of which nearly caused Korra to pass out. Korra held the firewall up with one hand, while a fire whip formed in her other. 

Korra curled the fire whip around the side of the wall, the tip just about reaching Azula perfectly. Azula had to give up her flurry of attacks to deal with Korra’s fire whip. Through her wall, Korra saw Azula subconsciously rub her lower back as she beat away Korra’s whip with her own. She had turned her body to deal with the fire whip, as she wasn’t too flexible anymore.

 _Don’t look away, hag_! Korra thought as she dropped her firewall. She breathed in deeply through her nose, and glared at Azula. A bullet shot out of Korra’s forehead, heading directly for her elderly teacher. Part of the reason Korra had gotten so close was because of Azula’s lack of mobility. If this attack hit her, Azula would definitely die.

Korra hadn’t expected it to work though, as Azula saw everything from the corner of her eye. Fire blasted out of her heels, elevating her just above the ground and saving her as flames erupted violently beneath her. She wasn’t entirely in the clear though, as the force of it still rocked Azula. She flew twenty-five metres away from Korra, landing unsteadily.

Korra created another whip of blue fire, except this time it was giant, more like one of Azula’s columns, and a lot, lot hotter. Korra brought it around in a wide arc to swallow Azula up, but Azula was prepared for that trick. 

The old lady firstly created a ring of blue fire with a radius of four metres, herself at the centre. Then she circled her hands above her head as the giant fire whip got ever closer. She straightened her hands out fully, palms open towards the sky. Just as Korra’s whip was about to crash into Azula, a fire tornado blazed upwards, protecting Azula perfectly. Korra tried to beat away the tornado, but her giant whip just got sucked in with the circulation.

 _I’ll have to get up close and personal then_ , Korra thought. She started sprinting normally, and got within ten metres of the fire tornado until Azula dissolved it. Korra kept charging, bringing her good fist back, then thrusting it forward with all her might. A huge blue fireball roared out of her knuckles, enough to swallow up an entire tram from an angle.

Azula realised she had a perfect opportunity when she saw Korra so close. She shot a bullet right from her forehead into the heart of the flame, but little did she know, that the fireball was actually just a diversion. Korra shot a bullet out of her own forehead in the same motion as punching her fireball. They connected perfectly right in the middle of Korra’s flashy fire punch.

The resulting explosion sent both women flying back, Korra skidding along the rough stone and tumbling in a heap. Azula rolled her ankle as she touched the ground, and screeched like a cat, her old body much more susceptible to pain. Korra grimaced as her left thigh was scraped open, getting pebbles stuck in there as she began to bleed. Korra pushed herself to her feet, wobbling as she got up, but her heart lifted when she heard Azula. As the smoke and dust cleared, Korra was the one looking better off. Azula was putting all her weight on her good leg, breathing sharply.

“Not looking too good,” Korra shouted, making sure that everyone watching heard her too. “Regretting your decision to torture a teenage girl?”

“My ankle isn’t nearly as bad as your leg!” Azula replied, although it was quite snappy. Her comment about Korra’s leg wasn’t exaggerated though. Blood was seeping freely out of the wound, most of the trouser leg having been torn off. That left Korra wearing one full trouser leg, and practically nothing on her other leg, the boots making it look even weirder. Her short trouser leg came up quite high on her inner thigh, showing off Korra’s impressive quads.

“We can compare injuries later,” Korra said, and front flipped forward onto her hands, wanting to prove that she was able to move just fine. Fire trailed after her heels as they came down, and shot towards Azula. Korra landed perfectly on her two feet, but her injured leg buckled partially under the weight almost instantly. The sudden attack worked well though, as Azula still hadn’t recovered fully from the initial pain, and took the attack quite roughly, stumbling back.

“That’s it, you’re getting it now!” Azula screamed after she recovered, and glared at Korra. She shot a bullet out of her tattoo, splitting it quite early. The two bullets curled around to hit Korra side-on, while Azula roared a medium sized flamethrower at Korra out of her mouth.

 _Incredible_ , Korra thought, appreciating Azula for the second time in their fight. _So naturally talented, even at her old age. Such a waste_. 

Korra made up her mind on how to counter this without too much deliberation, as they sped towards her. She blasted rockets at the ground, rising up to twenty metres. There wasn’t nearly enough scope for Azula to change direction that late, and the resulting shockwave rippled Korra’s skin even at her height as Azula’s attacks converged into each other in one big explosion.

 _I’m surprised she didn’t see that coming, with the distance between us_ , Korra thought, but was snapped back to reality as Azula started gathering lightning, albeit a lot more lethargically than the first time, and with about a fifth of the power than her first huge shot. She zapped it at Korra, who had to abandon the rockets at her finger tips to catch the lightning, as she couldn’t move out of the way.

Korra caught it, but wobbled unstably on only the rockets of her two feet. As the lightning threatened to break loose and ravage Korra’s body, Azula capitalised on Korra’s difficulty in maintaining the lightning and her rockets at the same time. The old woman shot a combustion bending bullet out of her tattoo, the sight of which nearly made Korra lose control of everything, as she had a third thing to concentrate on. Korra extended her arm wildly at the bullet, hoping for a miracle.

Said miracle occurred, and the lightning bolt connected with Azula’s bullet of compressed flames, much to the old lady’s disappointment. Nothing happened for a second, while all the different pressures were shoved against each other, resulting in a number of sizzles and pops ringing out. Then, a blinding flash of light emerged, followed by a low boom, as the energies shot out in every direction. It didn’t hurt anyone, but it was dazzling for the spectators, as Korra lowered herself down to the ground, touching down softly. The water-tribe girl looked at Azula raggedly, while the leader of the island put a hand on one knee, exhausted.

“You know,” Azula called out, stopping to breath, “I’ve got to say, I’m proud of myself for making you into firebender you are now.” Korra closed her eyes for a brief moment, a result of all the flashing lights, but Azula spotted the slip-up in concentration instantly. She cut whatever she was about to say short, and slashed at Korra, fire belting out of her fingers, not able to produce another combustion bending bullet with her current energy just yet.

Korra opened her eyes weakly, just in time to see something flying at her. She barely had enough time to register it, nevertheless react, so she was left completely open.

“Agh!” Korra cried as the blue fire crashed into her, burning into her stomach and arms. The young Avatar was thrown back due to the velocity of the attack, aggravating the wound on her leg even more as she fell on her ass. She scrambled up into a boxing stance, eyes wide open. Her red stomach was exposed for everyone to see, also showing off the eight-pack Korra had gained during her time on the island.

“I’m surprised that worked,” Azula commented, trying to act like she was bored. But in reality, she was extremely tired. She had thrown all her most powerful attacks at Korra, but the Avatar had dealt with them all. She knew that it was technically an unfair fight, given how Korra had been intensely train for the last year while Azula hadn’t produced a spark in thirty years up until recently, but she didn’t care. Azula’s pride was on the line, and with every passing minute, she was at more and more of a disadvantage due to Korra’s shape and stamina.

 _You’re gonna pay for that_! Korra thought, anger spurring on her conviction. She started running again, and hoped into her rockets with perfect timing, gliding over to Azula. She knew that the further away Azula was, the better it was for the old woman, so she made for Azula in a straight line.

Azula, who realised what Korra intended to do right away, shot another bullet out of her forehead, on target with Avatar's gut. It wasn’t nearly at the strength of her previous combustion bending bullets, and Korra managed to equal it in mid-air without breaking stride. She flew straight through the smoke cloud the two bullets created when they collided, causing Azula to step back subconsciously.

Korra landed within a few feet of Azula, and quickly kicked vertically with both feet, one after the other. Two small columns of blue flame flew at Azula, who barely managed to wave them away, singing a few loose threads from her hair in the process. Korra followed this up with a fire jab, fire backhand, fire jab and another fire backhand, the four fireballs being shot rapidly. Korra wasn’t done there though, and used the momentum from her last fire backhand, which she’d put all her weight behind, to spin into a fire roundhouse kick. She finished off the combo with the dragon breath technique, the blue flamethrower roaring out of her mouth.

Azula cried out as the flurry of attacks crashed into her, unable to deal with them all at such a high intensity so close, and tumbled down onto the floor. She was covering her face with one hand, as she’d been caught with one of the jabs right smack-bang in the forehead. 

The elderly lady had been temporarily blinded as a result. She was lucky that Korra’s dragon breath didn’t last more than a few seconds, or the damage would’ve been much worse. She lashed out blindly with her other arm while wailing, a slash of fire belting harmlessly into the sky. She kicked both her legs in the direction Korra had been coming at her from, two small columns of fire all she could manage.

Azula heard Korra’s boots tap off of the stone as the Avatar easily side-stepped her fire kicks, but to make matters worse, her back gave out at the worst possible time. She heard several clicks as she got a painful reminder of why she took tablets every day, having forgotten to take them today because she was so fixated on the match.

 _No_! Azula thought desperately, realising that the previously impossible now very much looked inevitable. As a last resort, with her hand still over her eyes, she roared fire at Korra, using the same technique Korra had used just a few moments ago.

 _Nice try_ , Korra thought as the attack rushed to meet her. Korra just clapped her hands together, then started circling them as the blue flames approached. They spun out harmlessly around Korra as she kept circling her hands patiently, like an invisible drill, hollowing out the flamethrower. After a few seconds, Azula ran out of oxygen, and her final resort faded into thin air. Korra walked up to the stricken Azula, not allowing second thoughts for what she was about to do. Whatever happened, she definitely wouldn’t be getting anymore lessons after this.

Korra raised her knee, then dug her heel into Azula’s gut as the old woman lay in the dirt. Azula’s hands immediately went to her gut with a wheeze, revealing her scarred face. She squinted at Korra with her right eye, her left potentially blinded for the rest of her life. Korra just rolled Azula onto her front, so she couldn’t combustion bend, then grabbed both her hands.

Stunned silence was the only thing that came from the crowd, all of them in disbelief to see their master at the mercy of Korra. Korra ignored this, knowing her job wasn’t done, as she placed both of Azula’s hands behind her back, sat on them to keep them in place, and shoved Azula’s head firmly into the ground. The water-tribe woman swore that she heard a whimper from the former heir to the Fire Nation throne, and formed a searing fire dagger in her free fist. She glanced around, but nobody, not even Tatsuo, was intervening, thankfully. Korra pulled Azula’s hair up, lifting her head just a tiny bit, so Azula could see the fire dagger right by her face.

“This is the end, huh?” Azula asked bitterly, spitting out dirt while accepting her fate. “I guess I should’ve learnt from my lifetime that you should never take any second chances with the Avatar.”

“You let your ego get to you,” Korra told her as she inched the dagger closer to Azula’s temple.

“Perhaps,” Azula said, even now not willing to completely admit that she was wrong. Just this one time though, she couldn’t think of a good enough argument to get her out of this predicament.

“Any regrets?” Korra asked, noticing how a lot of people were edging closer to try and hear what they were saying.

“That I didn’t take my… rightful place as the Fire Lord,” Azula said, struggling to breath with Korra’s weight on her frail figure. She didn’t squirm though. “And that I never had my own child. And while we’re in this position, that I couldn’t officially give Tatsuo the reins. I always intended for him to take over soon enough, or when I died. Funny enough, I didn’t even consider that you could actually win until a minute ago. Life is full of surprises.”

Azula closed her eyes as Korra set her heart on what she was going to do. Azula had been peaceful just then, but couldn’t keep her mouth shut as Korra ran the tip of the fire dagger along her temple. She just kept in mind that it would all be over in an instant, but after a few seconds, the pain still hadn’t subsided.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?” Azula screamed, mentally cursing herself for showing weakness in her final moments, as Korra made light incisions into her head. “JUST GET IT OVER WITH!”

After what felt like three minutes, but in reality was just fifteen seconds, Korra stopped slicing along into Azula’s skin. She got up and stood over the old lady, who was whimpering.

“Death is too kind a punishment for you,” Korra declared, spitting on her old master, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear. “Instead, I’m going to leave you with this humiliating defeat. You’ll live the rest of your days with it. The incisions I just made into your temple were to let you know an ounce of the pain you inflicted on that girl, Azami, today. It will also stop you from combustion bending for the rest of the day, probably, so don’t even think about shooting me in the back. I’m taking my leave now. Otherwise, thank you for teaching me. The experience has been invaluable.” In her heart, Korra knew she just didn’t have the conviction to kill Azula, but what she had said was also very relevant.

With that, Korra turned on her heel, walking away. To say that the audience was shocked was an understatement. She saw countless gaping mouths staring her way, unable to conjure anything other than pure disbelief. Korra harrumphed, pretending she didn’t care, deciding that she would go back to her house to collect whatever measly belongings she had accumulated during her time on the island, then would get a boat back to the mainland, patching herself up on the journey. Korra could also decide what her next steps would be while she did that. Everything had been so sudden today that she hadn’t even given it a thought yet.

“Not just yet!” Azula screamed from behind Korra, resulting in a groan from the twenty-three-year-old. Korra turned around to face Azula, who somehow, at her old age, still had the energy to push herself up to her feet. Her left eye was squeezed shut from both the burns and blood dripping down over it. “This match isn’t over yet! Until one of us is killed, this Agni Kai will continue!”

“Give in!” Korra urged the stubborn old lady, who had the look of a mad woman in her one open eye. “Just accept your defeat, Azula!” Korra quickly got her hands up, ready to redirect the lightning that Azula began to conjure with the last dregs of her strength. Azula grinned toothily at Korra.

“Kill me, or I’ll kill you!” Azula demanded, her emotions getting the better of her properly for the first time in front of Korra. Azula licked her lips, her serenity from a minute ago gone, but still, Korra refused.

“No!” Korra insisted, keeping all of her attention on Azula’s fingers as they crackled with power. “Just give in, Azula, or I’ll really have to kill you!” It was a bluff though, and Azula saw straight through it.

“You still refuse to just do it, do you!?!” Azula asked, her whie hair flying all over the place, blood dripping down her wrinkled face, burns littering her features. “Let me tell you, after the first time, it comes so much easier for all the others!” She looked like a witch that lived in the woods, and ate children for breakfast.

“Stop this madness!” Korra demanded, her anxiety rising. “Azula, please!”

“You know,” Azula began, trembling as her body screamed out with old age and pain, “I never taught you the one thing that everyone in a position of power should know. Never spare an enemy’s life, or else, they will come back later to bite you in the ass!”

“I can and will redirect everything you throw at me right back at you!” Korra warned, her breathing irregular and sharp. “I’m giving you one last chance!”

“Kill me now then!” Azula told Korra, but the young woman just stared back rigidly at her former teacher, unable to move. That gave a mentally unstable Azula an answer to her offer. Azula succumbed to the darkest, most extreme corners of her mind. She gave Korra a sly look, about to play the final card she had up her sleeve.

 _Here it comes_ , Korra thought, bracing herself for the attack. But as she followed Azula’s fingers, her brow furrowed in confusion as Azula pointed to her right. Korra eyes followed where Azula’s fingers were pointing, realising too late what Azula’s alternative to not being killed by Korra was. Just as the realisation hit, lightning zapped out of Azula’s finger tips, travelling at the speed of sound while everything else stopped for Korra. The target didn’t even realise her fate as it blitzed towards her.

Azami’s head was blown clean off her shoulders by Azula’s lightning bolt, splattering blood everywhere. Everyone, from Korra to even the most dedicated islander, including Tatsuo, looked on in horror as Azula shamelessly murdered a teenager. Azula, to make matters even worse, laughed. She laughed while everyone stood there, speechless. There were many hardened killers on the island, but even they drew the line long before children, and especially their own comrades.

 _Let her have it_! Vaatu urged suddenly in Korra’s head, after a few moments where nobody moved apart from Azula, who threw her head back in laughter. _Use my power, do it, Korra!_

Korra stood there silently, Azula’s laughs echoing around the shocked mountainside. All of her hate, disgust, anger, and general negative feelings, all bundled into one, and focused themselves on the lady just across from Korra.

 _You must be decisive,_ Kyoshi’s voice rang out in Korra’s head.

 _Sometimes, you can’t be righteous and noble when the weed grows back,_ Aang’s voice told her.

Korra’s eyes and new tattoo suddenly glowed with a demon-like red, as the string that bound Korra to her morality snapped. She stared at Azula wordlessly, who was still cackling. 

Korra couldn’t find strong enough vocabulary to describe her malicious feelings, so she decided to be decisive, as she had been urged so many times before. Or rather, she let Vaatu lift the restraints as she growled, her intent crystal clear in her mind.

Korra punched the ground with one fist, a small, narrow shockwave travelling through the earth towards Azula. The hag continued to laugh during her last breaths, but was cut short by the ground at her feet suddenly erupting with lava. Azula was swallowed up immediately, no time to register what was happening as her bones were stripped away of their flesh, and then burnt to ashes themselves, as Korra watched through the comfortable red glow of Vaatu’s spirit.

Azula, after ninety years of terrifying the world, of causing so much unnecessary suffering with her abuses of power, was dead. Burnt alive in lava. And it was none other than Korra who did it.


	44. Coming Together

Korra threw the rope of that tied her little boat to the pier onto the deck. The entire island had come to see her off. She threw her old water-tribe clothes on, then looked over to Tatsuo with a tired expression. So much had happened today alone that she just didn't have the energy any more to think, just enough to get on with her life. Now, though, she had a crisis to deal with, Omashu and Ba Sing Sae apparently having gone to war in her absence, according to Tatsuo. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

"Avatar Korra..." Tatsuo started awkwardly, his whole life having been flipped upside down. Korra waited for him to continue, but for the first time ever in front of her, he was lost for words.

"Thank you?" Korra suggested. She rubbed the circular indentations of her tattoo, something that she'd started doing ever since she'd gotten the tattoo.

"Yes, I suppose," he said, sighing, then threw whatever he had planned in his head out the window. "Look, what occurred today probably won't sink in for me for a while. But I'm too tired to make up lies at the minute, so this is coming from the heart, while I'm not too effected by emotions.

"We haven't gotten along at all the entire time you've been here," Tatsuo began. "And that's all down to how I treated you. I know it's a bit rich, but I'm sorry for how I treated you. For the last thirty-odd years, I've been worshipping a false god, almost never questioning her decisions. Azula manipulated me to do her bidding masterfully. I could've taken over at any point, yet I was just happy to let her boss me around. It's just..." he trailed off again.

"We're probably not going to meet again for a long time," Korra said, putting a hand on his shoulder. If she'd done that eight hours earlier, she would've probably gotten a harsh slap, or worse. "Let it all out."

"She was the devil, but I blinded myself to her atrocities for the sake of feeling important," Tatsuo continued glumly, then looked at Korra meekly in the eyes. "I'm sorry for how much of a bellend I've been to you. I'm sure that goes for everyone else behind me." The crowd behind him all nodded silently, showing their support to his statement.

"There's a line between okay and bad crimes," Korra said, to the man more than twenty-five years older than her. "I'm not one to talk, but I think you should have realised that by now. Selling drugs to support your operation isn't good in the slightest, but it's not nearly as bad as torturing people. My words won't mean much in a week when I'm gone, but I hope you remember what happened today, and draw the line a lot sooner than what Azami had to go through. I don't want to have to come back one day to remind you of that."

"I swear we won't be so radical in the future," Tatsuo promised. Then, he took a deep breath, looking embarrassed, and stuck out his hand. He held it there awkwardly for a second, before Korra realised he was asking for a handshake.

Korra grasped Tatsuo’s hand firmly, squeezing it tightly. Tatsuo looked up, relieved, and shook Korra's hand with vigour. It was about eleven seconds before they broke the handshake.

"Goodbye, Tatsuo," Korra said. "Thank you for hosting me." Korra hopped onto her boat, preparing herself to create a strong current to get her journey started. She was exhausted not only from the Agni Kai with Azula, but also Azami's heart-wrenching cremation just an hour ago. Funnily enough, Korra felt a little nostalgic for a second as the current started to pick up, but then it disappeared when she reminded herself why she was leaving.

"Avatar Korra!" Tatsuo called out as she began to drift away.

"Yes?" she called back.

"The nature of our roles means that there is a very strong possibility that we will meet again sometime in the future," Tatsuo shouted. "We may be on opposing sides by that point. I just want to let you know that you have earned my respect and the respect of everyone else on this island. Goodbye!"

"Thank you! Bye!" Korra yelled back, and summoned a powerful wave. 

Then, the young Avatar was suddenly speeding away from the island she had come to call home for the last year. She watched it slowly shrink into the distance while pushing the boat forward through the current. After roughly about seven kilometres was in between them, and she was sure that she wasn't being followed by sensing for any submarines in the depths of the sea, Korra lay on her back, contemplating what her next moves were. She rubbed her left thigh, which she'd bandaged up on the island after bending all the pebbles and dirt out.

Korra thought about Kalla, and her heart fluttered when she realised that she might be able to see her daughter again soon enough. Of course, the war between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae took huge precedent, but Korra was sure that she'd be able to squeeze in a little time once she'd located where her parents were staying.

Korra rubbed her tattoo again, not able to smudge it thankfully, as she played out different scenarios of leaders reacting to her return. None of them were with welcome arms, unfortunately, no matter what way she tried to angle it. They would probably try to get her imprisoned in any way possible. It didn't matter though. Korra had just been given a harsh example of what happened when she didn't act decisively, or when she stuck to her morals against a dangerous opponent. People died. Azami's blood was on her hands, according to Korra. So she had a rough plan of what she would do: Force the leaders into peace with her authority as the Avatar.

Sure, it wasn't ideal. If they were pushing for peace themselves (which she doubted), then great, just nudge them along in the right direction. But if she just let them deal with it on their own because she had bloodbent recently and they didn’t like that, then quite possibly, millions of lives would be lost. She might not be a popular figure afterwards, but she would stop war at all costs. Even if it meant losing all her friends.

 _Who am I kidding, I don't have any friends,_ Korra thought to herself, getting a little upset at the realisation. _But so long as I have Kalla, that's all that matters_.

Thinking about Kalla led to darker thoughts, namely about Mako. She thought that all of her anger had been used up today, but she was wrong. Even just the thought of him still got Korra riled up. Her ability to combustion bend hadn't set itself permanently when Korra killed Azula. She could still feel it the exact same as before, lingering in her mind. Korra wasn't totally obsessed with cementing the ability, but she was a little unsure about what she would do when she finally met him again, if she ever did. She had convinced herself that she would kill him while on the island, but inside, it all felt like a bit of a front.

 _I'll beat him into next week, anyway_! Korra assured herself in her mind, and Vaatu's spirit rumbled contently. He wasn't talking right now at the minute, annoyingly, but a change had come over Korra after killing Azula.

Korra liked the power she felt when she had used Vaatu's power. When she had gone into the Avatar State with Raava in the past, her conscience was nearly always nagging at her in the back, apart from when she fought Zaheer. But in the Avatar State with Vaatu, that annoying voice was gone. She was able to just believe in herself without any doubt creeping into her mind. The doubt that had kept Korra from shooting down Azula when she had the chance, the doubt that had cost Azami her life. 

If she was going to stop a war, then Korra would need all the self-confidence an Avatar could get. She didn't see herself as a 'dark' Avatar for using Vaatu instead of Raava; she still firmly believed in peace.

Korra just wouldn't be bound by other peoples' opinions any more. She felt no regret for bloodbending the Triple Threats back then, or taking away General Iroh II's bending. She likened herself to Kyoshi, who had made the Earth King bow to her in order to maintain peace.

 _If Republic City doesn’t want me back, then fine,_ Korra thought, gazing at the stars. Winter was approaching, and the sun had already set. _But I'm their Avatar, and I'll help them when they need it._

* * *

  
Jinora wandered around the top of the small hill dotted with pretty dandelions and roses, numerous spirits ambling around her peacefully. She had decided that this was officially her favourite spot to visit in the spirit world, as she gazed at a beautiful waterfall crash down into a lake a few hundred metres away, or what looked like it. If she had entered the spirit world through the portal with her real body, she would’ve had to trek all the way to this spot, but Jinora had become incredibly in tune with her spiritual self ever since the portal had been reopened, pretty much about a year now since Korra had reopened it without warning. She could travel vast distances in mere moments just by imagining them.

Jinora's mood fell a little bit as she thought of her old friend. She hadn’t talked to Korra once since the poor girl ran away, when she was fourteen. Jinora had now just turned sixteen a few weeks back, having grown a few inches since they had last met. She plopped down on the grass, feeling the gentle, warm breeze ruffle her skin. She rubbed a winged-tiger cub under its chin, earning a purr from the tiny spirit.

“Please come back soon, Korra,” Jinora pleaded aloud to no-one in particular. “Even if most people don’t like you, we need an Avatar.”

A war had officially broken out between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae, which had been threatening for a good while, just a few weeks ago. It was still in its infancy stages, but soon enough it would get very bad. It showed how terrible things got when Korra left the world to its own devices, or rather, she was shoved out by the world. It felt like nearly a repeat of the Earth Empire, just a lot more openly bloody.

“It really is a pity,” a random man’s voice said behind Jinora. Jinora twisted around, startled, but noticed immediately that the man didn’t have any negative energy about him. He looked old, had orange and red robes on, a beard that stuck strictly to his jawline, a bald head and airbender tattoos.

“Sorry,” Jinora said, relaxing, breathing a sigh of relief. “I didn’t hear you there. Things have been troubling back in the physical world.” She swore that the man, who was very tall, looked familiar, but then again, he looked like all the old paintings of airbenders that she had seen in the temples.

“You’re worried for Avatar Korra, are you?” the man asked.

“Yes,” Jinora admitted, although she didn’t say that to most people she didn’t know, as they still all had a negative opinion of the young woman. The immediate rush to cancel Korra in the media had long passed, but most were still outraged with their Avatar. “I just think that she deserves a second chance at least, she’s done countless to warrant one, like very nearly dying for the sake of our culture! You were an Air Nomad, weren’t you?”

“I was, or am,” the man answered, sitting down on the grass. He smiled gently at the winged-tiger cub spirit, who nested on his lap. “It depends how you view it.”

 _He looks a lot like dad_ , Jinora thought, but just put it down to the tattoos and general airbender appearance. _No, more like Uncle Bumi, by his face_. “I’m sorry, but who are you?” she asked the stranger.

“I expected that you would have that reaction,” the man said sadly. “One of my few regrets in life is that I never got to hold any of my grandchildren. I can see that you’ve grown into a strong young woman. Tenzin did a much better job than I ever did at raising his children.”

“Tenzin? Grandchildren?” Jinora repeated, connecting the dots, and thought of all of her grandparents. She knew both of them on her mum’s, Pema's, side, so that just left her dad’s side. Katara and…

“You’re very sharp,” he complemented as a look of realisation dawned on Jinora’s face, while his grin just grew wider. “Your uncle Bumi would’ve taken a lot longer to figure that one out, you’ve got your aunt Kya's intellect.”

“Grandpa Aang!” Jinora cried, jumping over and crushing her grandfather in a bear hug, recognising him from the old photos of her gran-gran, Katara. “It’s so good to see you! I bet you’ve got so many amazing stories to tell me!”

“They don’t have much on yours,” Aang chuckled, returning the hug in earnest. They held the hug for another few seconds before Aang continued; “Your courage and pure heart only comes once in a generation. You got your airbending tattoos before me, which makes you the youngest in about five centuries.” Aang’s spirit heart fluttered as he finally got to meet his granddaughter, who he had been watching for so long.

“Really?” Jinora asked, looking her grandfather in the eyes.

“I wouldn’t lie about something like that,” Aang said, gesturing for Jinora to sit down in front of him, which she did. “Let’s talk. I’m sure there’s plenty that I’ve missed out on. Don’t bother with anything heavy at the moment, we can discuss that later.”

“Like what?” Jinora asked, unsure where to start.

“How about your brother and sister, Ikki and Meelo,” Aang suggested. “I haven’t been able to watch too much of them, compared to you.”

Jinora chatted away endlessly for the next hour, Aang soaking up every word. Jinora told him thousands of tiny things about her day to day life, which would’ve been boring to most, but Aang hung on intently to every word. He did feel a little bit sad that he couldn’t have been there to witness them himself, but couldn’t get the giddy smile off of his face that came when he was undeniably happy about something. He wished he could spend days talking, catching up with Jinora, as well as Meelo and Ikki, but unfortunately, he knew that he couldn’t avoid the reason why he had appeared to her in the first place.

“Jinora,” Aang said eventually, his smile slowly turning into a more serious look. They had just had a bit of a lull in the conversation, which gave Aang the opportunity he needed. “I know this may seem a little dark given that we only met an hour ago, but there was another reason why I appeared to you today. I’ve been holding off on it for about a year and a half in your time, but something transpired which means I have to step in, and I need your help. It’s to do with Korra.”

“Has she been found?” Jinora asked hopefully, springing up. “Where, where?”

“Where she is does not matter,” Aang answered, “but rather the path that she is headed on. I sensed Vaatu’s energy nearly crumple Raava's just yesterday entirely. I fear that if action is not taken soon, Raava’s light will be quenched completely, and Korra will be corrupted with it by Vaatu.”

“Vaatu?” Jinora repeated, remembering the giant dark spirit that attacked Republic City back at Harmonic Convergence, nearly five years ago now. She shuddered at thought of him, nightmares coming back. “I thought that Korra had dealt with him, I felt him get purified myself. Don’t tell me he’s back?!”

“He is,” Aang admitted reluctantly. “How he came back isn’t of the utmost importance right now, the important thing is that you listen to me very carefully.”

“Well… okay,” Jinora said hesitantly, remembering she did feel an uncanny semblance to him the day before ripple through the spirit world, but had ignored it.

“About four and a half months ago in the physical world,” Aang began, “Korra’s general confusion manifested itself into hate. I don’t know what triggered this, but at that time, Raava’s energy presence inside of Korra was weakened as Vaatu grew stronger, and equalled Raava’s presence. There had been a warning sign at the South Pole, but I have been blocked from appearing to Korra ever since, whether it be in the spirit or material world. I believe that she summoned Kyoshi from the dead to talk, but when I tried to reach out, Kyoshi rejected me, as she felt her time on this planet was done.”

“I thought the Avatar cycle had been broken, and started anew,” Jinora commented. “At least that’s what Korra said, or what I think she told me.”

“The new spirit portal has opened up a realm of possibilities,” her grandfather explained. “And it has also allowed me to verify the potential within you. Jinora, what do you know about energybending?”

“Energybending?” Jinora repeated, thinking hard. “I’m not sure, not too many people know anything about it. Didn’t you use it to take away Fire Lord Ozai's bending to end the 100-Year-War?”

“Yes,” Aang confirmed. “Even I didn’t know too much about the intricacies of it, and I was renowned for my ability to take one’s bending away. Energybending is the purest form of bending. Air, water, earth and firebending are all just different branches of it.”

“Does that mean,” Jinora said after a moment of thought, jumping to a conclusion, “that any bender can energy bend? That they can take someone’s bending if they just know how to unlock it?”

“No,” Aang answered, having an answer prepared for that question. All sense of humour and light-heartedness had left the conversation. “The Lion Turtles knew strictly to only grant one branch of energybending each. Humans, as I know all too well myself, can be bent and twisted. Do you know what happens to the corrupted heart when it tries to energybend?”

“No,” Jinora answered.

“It will backfire, and your bending will be removed permanently,” Aang revealed, leading to a gasp from Jinora. “The resolve must be driven by a calm and collected mind. Any influence from emotion will flip the process over entirely.”

“That’s terrifying!” Jinora exclaimed. “Weren’t you afraid of that ever happening to you? And... wouldn’t the genocide of our people have made you angry, even in the slightest, when you fought Fire Lord Ozai?”

“At that time, my faith in the philosophy of the Air Nomad culture was unwavering,” Aang answered. “I believed that I would be no better if I took a life in exchange for my people's, and I also knew that he would wreak havoc on the world. So when Ozai refused my genuine offer to stand down, I knew that that was my best chance.”

“That’s amazing, grandpa!” Jinora said, Aang somehow earning even more respect from his grandchild. Then her expression changed to a curious one: “But how does this fit in with what you need to tell me? What does it have to do with my ‘potential’?”

“You have the power to energybend,” Aang revealed, shocking Jinora. But rather than revel in amazement, she just looked at the ground. She seemed to be torn about something she was thinking about.

“What is it?” Aang asked.

“It’s just…” Jinora said, then sighed, her shoulders slumping. “It’s just, I’m not sure I’m capable of dealing with all that power. I mean, taking someone’s bending away is no small deal, I remember the terror I felt when Amon was about to take my bending away. I don’t know if someone like me is the right person to wield that authority. I’m sorry for disappointing you, grandpa.”

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Aang answered, and a dejected Jinora looked up to see a proud smile etched on her grandfather’s face. “You are a mature young woman, pure of heart. Your reluctance to have such power, when most teenagers would usually do anything to impress others, shows that you are the right one for my task.”

“Umm… thanks,” Jinora replied awkwardly, blushing at the high praise from a man she had heard so much about. Then she looked up; “Wait, what task? Do you want me to take someone’s bending away?”

“Not at all!” Aang cleared up immediately. “You would probably die from such an exertion, even at the peak of your strength in your entire life. I never once even considered using it without the power of the Avatar State. The task I need you to carry out is still incredibly dangerous, though. Are you up for it?”

“Well…” Jinora said. “What is it?”

“You are very sharp,” Aang repeated. “It will be life threatening, I can guarantee you that.”

“I’ve been in dangerous situations before,” Jinora replied patiently.

“Very well,” Aang said. “I fear that Korra will be tempted by Vaatu from now on to use his power in place of Raava’s. If Korra does get sucked into that, we both know for a fact that Vaatu won’t sit by idly. He will slowly possess Korra’s mind more and more every time she uses his power, until he has complete control over her consciousness. There is only one form of pure love that can revive Raava within Korra, if you will. Do you know where Kalla is?”

“Kalla?” Jinora repeated. “You mean, Korra’s baby sister?” Aang nodded, after a moment of slight hesitation. “Yeah, Korra’s parents have been staying on Air Temple Island for the last year with her, as they were shunned out of the South Pole. What does she have to do with this? And how do you know her name?”

“Do you really not know?” Aang asked. “The truth about Kalla? I know her name because I learnt everything about the fiasco at the South Pole, if you really wonder.”

“What truth?” Jinora asked.

“It isn’t my place to tell you,” Aang said, sighing, “but I have no choice. Kalla… is Korra’s daughter. I presume the reason Korra left Kalla with her grandparents is because she didn’t want to put the child in danger.”

Jinora just sat there, speechless, staring at her grandfather, before the meaning hit her. It was true that given the skin tone of Tonraq and Senna, that Jinora had naturally been confused by how much lighter Kalla’s skin was than her 'parents'. But after knowing Senna for a few weeks, Jinora had banished such a suspicion from her head, knowing that Senna would never do something like cheat on her husband, and put Kalla’s skin tone down to a condition. But now, that made so much sense. Jinora's heart instantly filled with an aching sympathy as she wondered how hard it must have been for Korra for the last year, separated from her baby.

“Do you mind me asking who the father is?” she blurted out.

“That’s not my business to say,” Aang told Jinora, who regretted what she had asked immediately. She was about to apologise, but Aang kept going: “Now I need you to listen carefully. Korra is coming back to the rest of the world soon. She has heard about the conflict between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae. Korra will come rushing to stop the war before it gets going properly. I want your uncle Bumi to lead the new Air Nation to Omashu to lead a peace effort.”

“You know about the new Air Nation?” Jinora asked.

“I know about everything,” Aang revealed. “I wish I could spend days upon days expressing how proud I am, but even this brief appearance to project myself is tiring. I want you to go to Omashu with your uncle, and see if you can save Korra before she falls too deep. A war like this changes a person, so you cannot wait around.”

“But how do you know that she’ll definitely go to Omashu?” Jinora asked nervously. “And what if she’s too far gone for me to help her?”

“It is as clear as day that she will go to Omashu,” Aang said. “And listen carefully to what I need you to do. I only trust you specifically to be able to carry out this job.”

Jinora listened carefully to her grandpa’s next words, but despite the immense respect she had for him, Aang's words did not settle well with Jinora.

“Are you joking?!” she cried, throwing her hands up. “There’s no way I’m doing that! Can you even begin to understand how stupid that sounds?”

“Jinora, please,” Aang told her calmly. “The custody of the Air Nation will be enough protection, and this is only as a last resort. Please, run it by Bumi and he will agree with it. Hopefully, you won’t even need to do it.”

Jinora grumbled unhappily, but decided not to shout, as her grandfather certainly wouldn’t have proposed something so desperate without a lot of consideration being taken into account.

“I’ll run it by every one that needs to know,” Jinora grumbled. “Anything else?”

“Yes,” Aang said. “There are a dozen marbles in my old office, which would now be Tenzin's, I suppose. They are light blue in colour, and very sentimental to me. I want you to take them with you when you go to talk to Korra. If you feel them tingle with spirit energy, pour your chi into them. Understood?”

“Yes,” Jinora said, vaguely remembering something like that in her dad’s office.

“Now go,” Aang said, his image shimmering before Jinora’s very eyes. “There is not an abundance of time to spare. Tell everyone that you met me if you want, but I fear that Meelo and Ikki could get jealous, so it might be best just to leave it with those on a need-to-know basis until the future.”

“Grandpa,” Jinora said shyly.

“Yes, Jinora?” Aang asked, unable to keep his image from unravelling.

“Can we talk again sometime, when all this has blown over?” she asked, looking up, but his appearance was already gone. Only his voice remained:

“Of course,” he whispered from all directions, then disappeared to wherever spirits recharged their batteries.

“Time to get to work,” Jinora declared out loud to no-one in particular after a minute of going over everything that had just happened. She bid farewell to all the surrounding spirits, then vanished from the spirit world back to her physical body.

* * *

  
Mako took in an irate breath as he, Bolin and seven different lavabenders all sat quietly in the back of the truck, hidden inside of a crate. The atmosphere was tense as they couldn’t talk, being close enough to a checkpoint. The general shaking off all the 'goods' had lessened, meaning that they were slowing down. The former commander was shitting himself, and they still had another week and a half to go stuck inside this truck until they reached Omashu. He hated every minute of it, but whenever he brought up the idea of defecting to Bolin, his younger brother vehemently rejected going back now.

The seven other students had all been present when the class got bombed. They were all hate-driven, just like Bolin, the agony of losing their friends or family twisting itself into a hatred of Omashu, one that would probably never disappear even when the war was eventually done with. Bolin was a truly sorry sight, consumed by his darkest desires to avenge Ling. They had signed up, and been sent off the next day, missing Mo’s return to Ba Sing Sae after telling Ling’s family the horrible news.

There were several battles being waged at the minute, all across the territory in between Ba Sing Sae and Omashu. Both ignored the smaller states who forbid them from fighting on their land, and laid waste wherever they came. Because of that, Mako, Bolin and the others were taking the long way around for their mission. What was their mission?

To sabotage the infrastructure of Omashu as much as they possibly could from the inside. There was the inner city, which used to be the entire city, sitting alone in a canyon, looking out over the abyss that surrounded itself on all sides, and there was the rest of the city, which spread out for miles and miles on top of the cliffs that surrounded the inner city. Omashu had apparently seen near-exponential growth since the end of the 100-Year-War.

There were a lot of Ba Sing Sae sympathisers in Omashu, who would help smuggle all nine of them into the inner city. These sympathisers would earn a lot of money and privileges after the war was done if Ba Sing Sae won, for their help. The idea was to wreck the economy of the inner city, which was very rich, at the start of the war, so that more finances would be vacuumed in centrally. That would naturally cause unrest from the worst-off citizens, who were getting the short end of the stick when Omashu declared war.

Mako’s heart thudded inside of his chest as he thought about everything that could go wrong. He really hated this entire plan with a passion. Maybe if Nel had been able to come out of intensive care, he might’ve been able to talk Bolin around, but Mako had doubted it. He and Bolin had had ten or so extremely long, dragged out arguments after the first one before enrolling, and the young lavabender hadn’t been swayed in the slightest.

 _Please let us both get out of this mess alive_ , Mako prayed to any potential god that could be listening.

* * *

  
Asami Sato dragged herself across her bedroom, dragging the white sack of powder with her that she kept hidden under her floorboard. Not that her servants didn’t know about it, but she just did it so that any 'guests' wouldn’t immediately be able to see it, and steal it behind her back. She had plenty more hidden all over her mansion, but it was just more convenient.

Her paper-thin arms struggled to even do that much.

The only remaining Sato caught a glimpse of her ghastly reflection in the mirror, her skin draped against her cheekbones, but didn’t care about her appearance anymore.

Asami got the thin, sturdy cardboard she always used, and poured a sizeable amount onto her desk. Any papers or documents were now gone from the worktop. It was only used for one thing now; cocaine.

Asami held her head just above the substance, the jittery anticipation of what she was about to do for the third time this week getting her excited, as it always did. She snorted the sugar-like substance up one nostril, pressing the other shut with her finger. In just a few seconds, it was all gone, travelling into her system. Asami sat back on the ground, waiting for the happy feeling to hit.

Just a minute later, the euphoric sensation of cocaine returned, shoving all of Asami’s problems down the well for later. The loneliness was all forgotten as Asami lost herself in the dreamland she had visited so often in the last year and a half.


	45. Reunion

_1 year, 11 and a half months after Chapter 1_

Korra sat on the top of the highest point of Omashu's inner city, fidgeting madly as she waited for something to call her into action. She had arrived in Omashu just a few hours earlier, having took two weeks to make the journey from Crescent Island to the great city. She had used the Avatar State with Vaatu, which she felt confident she could control now, to fly over their walls. She was wearing her old water-tribe gear, which felt like new clothes to her after wearing the Fire Nation getup for so long. It was ten o'clock at night, curfew having passed at seven. An eerie silence strangled the city in the midst of war, but the main army from Ba Sing Sae was nowhere near the boundaries just yet.

“How long will you hold out?” Korra muttered, referring to the lavabenders from Ba Sing Sae. She cast her mind back to her conversation with Siya, the King of Omashu.

  
_Korra stood anxiously outside the grand doors that led to Siya's throne room. She had been triple checked in every way possible for the last hour, but even now, they had three men watching her back. She was wearing platinum cuffs on her hands and feet, and had a metal plate strapped around her forehead to keep her from combustion bending. Once she had proved that she was the Avatar, King Siya had apparently been very eager to meet Korra._

_That in itself was a huge relief to Korra. She didn’t want to have to raise a finger to get the King on her side, which was peaceful negotiations. She had found all the searches a tiny bit excessive, but understood that nothing was left uncovered during war. An old woman opened the doors from the inside, and peeked through._

_“The King is ready for you,” the old crone told Korra urgently, and Korra got a shove in the back from one of the guards. She ignored it, and shuffled forward as fast and elegantly as she could._

_Her first impression of the King of Omashu wasn’t great. His throne room was lavished with decorations, with countless woman all lining up to adore him. He had some of the nicest clothes Korra had ever seen, and Wu had gone out of his way to show her his rare animal pelts lined with jewellery in numerous attempts to impress her. They never worked._

_Siya was a huge man at 6’5, his arm and chest muscles bulging with every breath he took. He had short blond hair which was parted down the middle, a skin tone just a tiny bit lighter than Korra’s, and piercing blue eyes. Korra could tell with one glance that he thought highly of himself. This observation was backed up when he smiled, showing a gold tooth. He waved away the dazzling women kneeling by his side, and gestured for Korra to come forward. Korra stepped forward, then bowed respectfully._

_“Avatar Korra,” Siya greeted, baring his teeth almost threateningly. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”_

_“Thank you for having me, King Siya,” Korra began. “The reason I’ve came here without any notice, your Highness, is to stop the war that’s been started between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae. I’ve been isolated for nearly the last year on Crescent Island, so I only found out about it recently. I’m sorry if this is sudden.”_

_“Crescent Island?” Siya repeated, his attention perking up. “What have you got up to there?”_

_“I learnt how to combustion bend,” Korra answered, definitely sparking interest from the mountain of a man. “That’s why my forehead is covered.”_

_“Prove to me that you’re the Avatar,” he rumbled. “I’ll let you take that covering off of your forehead too.”_

_“Of course,” Korra complied. She held out her hands, and lit a blue flame, then increased its height until it was a foot tall. She saw a jug of water, let her fire die, then dragged the water over to just above her hands. The water-tribe woman danced with it around her body with as much mobility as she had available, then gracefully bent it back into the jug._

_“That will be enough,” Siya declared, and gestured to the guards. She felt her headpiece click, then was lifted off her head. Siya grinned at the sight of her tattoo. “I have one more question, Avatar Korra,” he said._

_“Yes?” Korra asked._

_“Are the rumours about Azula true?” he posed the question, which caused Korra to tense up nervously. She didn’t know what kind of relationship Siya had had with Azula, if they even knew each other at all, so Korra decided to play it safe._

_“What rumours?” she asked with mock innocence._

_“Don’t play stupid with me, Avatar!” he warned menacingly, banging his fist off the arm of the throne to emphasize his point. He seemed to be very impatient. “Is Azula dead? That’s been the word going around from my people in the Fire Nation! And more specifically, who killed her?” Korra pursed her lips hesitantly, but realised that he knew all the details._

_“I did,” Korra answered reluctantly, giving him the confirmation he wanted. “We fought an Agni Kai, and I killed her. She had it coming.”_

_“I could agree more,” Siya told her. “Guards, take her shackles off. We can trust her.”_

_“Really?” Korra said, surprised. She hadn’t genuinely imagined a scenario like this playing out once, where the King trusted her enough to let her move freely._

_“Yes,” Siya said, stepping off of his throne. He petted one of the women on the head like pets, which greatly annoyed Korra, but she kept her mouth shut. “But there is one condition to me even considering to negotiate.”_

_“What is it?” Korra asked warily, albeit not too disappointed. She had expected a condition or two in order for his cooperation, like the late Earth Queen had when they were looking for airbenders in Ba Sing Sae._

_“It’s quite reasonable,” the king told her, putting his hands behind his back and walking in circles around Korra. Korra turned around to face him as the guards undid the cuffs on her feet, hands and forehead. “Oh my, that is quite an impressive tattoo. It looks new, by the brightness of the ink.”_

_“Thank you,” Korra said, as she rubbed her wrists. “I worked extremely hard for it. What’s your condition?”_

_“My condition is,” the king started, “that you round up the numerous terrorists from Ba Sing Sae that have been lavabending in the inner city, and targeting our infrastructure. It started two nights ago, and it is obvious that they intend to keep going for the time being. I want you to bring them to me. You can lavabend yourself, so it shouldn’t be any issue for you.”_

_“Okay,” Korra agreed, figuring that it wasn’t such a bad deal for her, as he’d just been very open with her. She didn’t have much credit since she’d been absent from world affairs for the best part of two years. “How many are there?”_

_“Nearly a dozen,” Siya answered, the sheer width of his body intimating on its own. Korra just looked up to him calmly though. “Do we have a deal?”_

_“One thing,” Korra said. “I want your guarantee that you won’t harm them while you negotiate with Ba Sing Sae for a ceasefire.” That clearly irked Siya, but after a moment or two, he agreed with a short nod of the head._

_“You best be on your way, then, Avatar,” he said, ushering her towards the doors. While she got a close up of his biceps, Korra reckoned that they definitely weren’t natural. She’d only seen that type of shape and texture from people in the gym that were generally known for taking steroids. “We’ll provide you with accommodation, but until they have all been captured for definite, I will not enter negotiations. Also, I will need you to propose the ceasefire, not me. It looks very bad, as you probably already know.”_

_“That’s good,” Korra said, and held out her hand. He shook it, trying to break her hand in the process, but she just returned it with her own strength. She’d learnt from her father from a young age how to earn respect from just a simple handshake, or rather, how not to lose it. Siya grinned when she returned it._

_“We’ll get on fine,” he said. And with that, Korra strolled back out the doors on her own, leaving her company behind. She couldn’t be happier with how things had gone so far. Now, she just had to uphold her end of the promise._

  
Korra hummed in boredom, not able to see anything down below in great detail. She could barely make out the outlines of the buildings, never mind who was walking in between them. Her plan was to keep a lookout for any lava, then belt down with her rockets to pursue the lavabenders from Ba Sing Sae. She had requested that any police officers stay away when she was fighting, as they would only get in the way. That message should have definitely spread by now. She could carry the offending lavabenders away on her rockets easily.

Korra hated this waiting game. No matter how well she had tried to find ways to pass the time in the past, it had always been the same calm before the storm.

 _It’s not the worst in the world,_ Korra thought. _At least I have law enforcement on my side. The only thing that would make this better is a glider, but my rockets are just as good._

Suddenly, Korra started to hear a lot of screams and shouts in the far-off distance, close enough to one of the great walls. She peered down, and sure enough, there was the bright red glow of lava that hadn’t been there a few seconds ago. Korra got up, rolled her shoulders, did a few jumping jacks, then jumped off the building.

Korra dropped like stone, holding her feet tight together in the 'pencil' shape. As she was about thirty metres above a small, squat library, blue fire blasted out of her heels and fingertips. They slowed her descent perfectly, Korra touching down on the roof with the same feeling as stepping down a flight of stairs. She got a running start off the roof of the library, then jumped. She created rockets once again, then arrowed towards the source of light. The twenty-three-year-old belted across the city, buildings flashing by, and after only two and a half minutes, she touched down by the restaurant. There were several soldiers from Omashu there, all trying to close off the exits from which lava could slither down.

Suddenly, Korra heard shouts from another part of the city. This time, there was a fire blazing high into the sky, and caused the soldiers to panic.

“That’s the food bank!” one of them cried desperately. “Ten men come with me, we’ve got to see if we save whatever's there!”

“We can’t leave this lava alone!” another one argued. “It’ll travel down the slope and wreck other buildings!”

“This restaurant can wait!” the first one replied. They were about to keep on bickering while things got worse, but Korra wasn’t prepared to wait for them.

“Men!” she shouted from behind them. They all turned their attention to her, and their mouths quite literally gaped open. They were all in disbelief, but Korra had expected that. “I’ve been given special orders from your king to get the lavabenders, and I can handle this on my own. Leave this to me!”

“No way,” one of them said, dumbstruck. “Are you…”

“Yes!” Korra answered. “Yes, I’m the Avatar. The tattoo on my forehead is new, if you’re wondering.”

“You’re a bloodbender!” a young soldier stated, saying what everyone had on their mind. Korra just rolled her eyes, and faced the lava. She took a deep breath in, feeling every drop of lava mentally, then exhaled slowly. The intense heat of the molten rock turned darker and darker in colour, until it was just a warm, black rock.

“Do you want my help or not?!” she asked, holding her hands out, then pointed to where the fire was still raging. “Every second you waste here is another second that fire burns down your city.”

The soldiers all looked to one another, unsure of what to do, but thankfully for Korra, one decided to take action:

“Lads, our work here is done!” he said. “Let’s get to that building, now!” They all cheered in unison, and started running towards the fire. A couple of them glanced back at Korra, but she just ignored their looks. She swung her head around, looking for places where the offending lavabender may have run off too. After a few seconds, Korra spotted a rubbish that had been knocked over, and decided it was just as good as anywhere to start.

Korra flew up on her rockets, high above the now-cool restaurant. She saw a number of interconnecting alleys leading from the corner that the rubbish bin had been knocked over. They were tight, barely looking big enough for two people to fit through. A squad of men like the one that had just ran off to the burning building wouldn’t have been able to properly chase a lone offender. In the distance, about eleven kilometres away, Korra saw another building suddenly turn to lava, but she didn’t bother racing over. Whoever had organised these attacks had planned everything without leaving one stone unturned. One attack after the other to suck in soldiers, then disperse them across the city, giving the lavabenders time to run away. It was very smart indeed.

Korra flew over the alleys, hearing sounds of disturbance in the near-distance. A bucket being kicked over, a cat screeching, a dog barking. This was all immensely helpful to Korra as she narrowed in on the person who was running. Suddenly, she saw them walk out onto a street, hands on their knees, panting. They were about a mile away from the restaurant, and clearly thought that they were in the clear. Unfortunately for them, Korra’s rockets didn’t make much sound, so they were helpless to hear Korra softly land down beside them, and also helpless to sense any danger as Korra kicked a blunt air roundhouse kick into their back.

They blurted out something inaudible as they went flying forward, face-planting into the paved concrete. Korra could tell now that they were quite stocky, and were wearing casual clothes as so not to look too suspicious. However, Korra was unnerved, for some reason, when she heard his voice.

“Agh!” the man cried, falling onto the ground roughly. “Since when did the cops start hiring airbenders? Can’t you tell…”

The man trailed off as he turned around, his complaint disappearing as he looked at Korra’s face. He was squat, early twenties, had black hair combed to the side, a square face and green eyes. There were several small scars littered across his face, looking a few weeks old, although one was nearly the size of his smug nose. He was lost for words, even though he was certainly the chatty type, from what Korra could remember.

He gulped, hoping that this wasn’t who he thought it was.

The woman across from him was one he hadn’t seen for nearly two years, yet was instantly recognisable. Her long hair from back then had been cut short once again, and her muscles were huge, just like he remembered of his very first impression of her. She wasn’t necessary the tallest, but she was still intimating just by standing there. The one thing that both surprised and shocked him, was the new tattoo on her head. The eye, even in the dim moon light, as there were no street lamps on to preserve power, gazed into his soul. He snapped his stare away from it, and looked her in her two real eyes. There was no mistaking her.

Korra’s heart thudded in her chest. She had thought she’d been prepared for anything, including potentially the need to kill someone in the worst-case scenario. But this was even beyond her wildest imaginations. Her breath caught in her throat as she tried to speak, and she cleared. He had the same reaction as well. The street was deserted apart from the two of them, but suddenly, she felt so claustrophobic.

“Korra.” he said.

“Bolin.”

“What are you doing here?!” Korra demanded, finding her voice after an uncomfortable silence.

“What am I doing here?!” Bolin replied, startled. “Where have you been?! I'm sure the entire world would like to know that! I’ve wanted to know that! Why didn’t you ever reach out to me?”

“I didn’t think it was safe,” Korra lied, pulling the response out of her ass. “I was stuck on an island in the Fire Nation for the best part of the last twelve months.”

“Come on!” Bolin said, exasperated. “That’s not an excuse! The future of the Earth Kingdom States is probably filled with war because you’ve been gone for two years, but only when conflict breaks out, you decide to make a return? What’s that about?”

“I’m still not welcome back in most places!” Korra replied, noticing a change in Bolin’s demeanour. Her last memory of him had been kind and friendly, but now, his words were a little bit sharper.

“What were you doing in the meantime, huh?” Bolin asked, then pointed at her face. “Probably something to do with the tattoo on your forehead? Can you firebend out of your mind now?”

“Yes,” Korra told him, trying to lower the hostility that was quickly rising between one of her former best friends and herself.

“And you ignored the rest of the world while you did that?” Bolin asked, but it was more like an accusation.

“Hey, they sent an army after me and my family to the South Pole!” Korra reminded him. “I just thought that it would be best to lay low for a while!”

“Well look at the consequences!” Bolin growled, struggling to contain himself. “Think about all the innocent families that have been destroyed because of this conflict! Think about the all the mothers who have lost their precious children! What were you even learning it for, you’re perfectly powerful without it!”

“Bolin, what happened?” Korra asked, trying to be gentle. She’d never seen him so worked up before about something Korra had failed to do as the Avatar, in fact, he’d always been gentle and supportive of her whenever something went wrong. She also didn’t want to address why he was here just yet too; she feared that she wouldn’t like it.

“What happened?” Bolin hissed. “What happened? I’ll tell you what happened. My students were good children, with the ability to lavabend. But one day, soldiers from Omashu bombed our class!” Bolin marched up to Korra and grabbed her by the hem of her shirt. “Do you know how many children died that day?”

“How many?” Korra whispered, her stern expression gone. She was trembling right now, realising that Bolin had undergone a massive trauma recently.

“Fifteen,” he snarled, looking at her dead in the eyes. “And I watched my best friend get stabbed in the back, right through his heart. Another one of my close friends wasn’t able to breath without feeling pain, the last time I checked. They ambushed a school of lavabenders just a month ago, Korra. Our school. They didn’t even declare war honourably, the cowards.”

“Bolin,” Korra said, putting her hands on his shoulders. “I can tell that you’re hurting badly at the minute, but this isn’t the proper way to deal with your grief.”

“Get your hands off me!” he commanded, swatting her hands away. “What do you mean by that?”

“I can tell that you’re a part of the war effort for Ba Sing Sae,” Korra told him, sorrow rising in her chest for her old friend. “There’s no point in denying it. I don’t know all the details, but from what you’ve just told me-“

“You don’t know all the details?” Bolin repeated, cutting her off, and laughed hysterically, although it had a sharp undertone of agony. “In that case, what do you know about the war, if you’re going to be involved?”

“Well,” Korra started awkwardly, looking down, “not much. Up until a few weeks ago, I was kept in the dark completely, because of my training. As soon as I heard about it, I decided to rush here. I had to steal all my food and money. When I learnt that there was a war going on, I just automatically thought to stop it.” Korra realised how pathetic it sounded, now that she had said it out loud. In her mind, she’d just thought that preventing a war was the only priority, without even hearing out both sides.

“Let me tell you then,” Bolin started, “my perspective of the story. Omashu killed nearly a thousand random people in bombings last month. A thousand people. Can you even begin to get your head around that mind-boggling number, because I saw less than twenty in one bombing, and I honestly don’t know how I’ve dealt with it so far.”

Korra squirmed away from him, the weight of how big this war really was hitting home. She’d always thought millions would die, but she couldn’t even begin to comprehend the horror that one hundred dead human corpses laid out in front of her would be like. The stench of blood drying into the air, flies eating away at the rotten flesh, their expressions as they breathed their last breaths. 

It made Korra feel dizzy, but then, she realised that she had just spoken to the man who had instigated that all, King Siya. She knew that Omashu wanted more power, and seeing as he was the king, he definitely had the power to veto all that if he wanted. But he didn't.

“What?” Korra started quietly, still looking down. “What do you want to gain from this? You destroyed the restaurant, didn’t you?” She was cornered, trying to talk her way out of it by asking a question. She also needed to confirm that he was part of it by his own admission.

“Yes,” he stated, “I was. What I want out of this-“ he gestured wildly to all the surrounding buildings and the attacks. Korra reckoned that she could see the light of two more lava attacks. “-is justice for all those who lost their lives for the politics of the upper class who live here! They started this war, and they’re going to feel the pain because of it! That restaurant was just a diversion for the other attacks, we’re going to hit them where it really hurts! These people can’t even begin to understand true hardship, they live in a bubble! They would gladly eat in front of a homeless man so that they don’t feel peckish! You know their type, don’t you?”

“I do,” Korra replied, thinking of Azula, for a recent example. She felt a little guilty, somehow, but quashed it down. “But try put it into simpler words. I do understand your pain, but I don’t think you’ve thought as deeply as you could have about it. You’ve let your emotions push you on without simplifying them yourself.” She felt like a right prick saying that, but she needed to try and help Bolin understand what he was going through himself.

“I want to make them pay!” Bolin declared, poking her quite hard in the forehead. “How hard is that for you to comprehend?!”

“You want to make them suffer, just like you did,” Korra rephrased, hating the sorry state her friend was in.

“So what if I do?” Bolin asked. “The people here will be the least-affected out of anyone during this war, apart from those in the Upper Ring in Ba Sing Sae. I can guarantee you that whoever had the final say in the decision to end hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of lives by giving that string of attacks the green light lives here! They’ve probably lived their whole lives here!”

“You’re not wrong,” Korra admitted. She was going to flip whenever she next saw King Siya, but for now, she had to try and save an old friend from the pits of darkness. “I don’t feel like a champion by doing his dirty work by hunting you down, when he had the nerve to tell me that capturing you lavabenders was the only way he would be open to even consider peace negotiations.

“But if you join a war with the purpose of righting the wrong that was dealt to you under the name of justice won’t stop anything,” Korra told Bolin. “If you take a life with your lavabending tonight, you’re just staining the memories of those who lost their lives to the scum who started it all off. You said you had another lavabending friend who can barely breath without feeling pain, right?”

“Yes,” Bolin answered, still itching to express his rage.

“If you die tonight, or tomorrow night, or the night after that,” Korra said, “then he will feel a double injustice has been done to him, through the deaths of you and your late friend who was killed in the bombings. He might well take a life in return, which only leads to more suffering, the exact same that you feel right now. My memories of you are of an understanding, caring man, who always thought of others. I still see that man in front of me, but he’s hurt, and confused. You staying involved in this war will play out exactly how I’ve just told you. You are going through what millions upon millions of people right now and before you have experienced. I don’t need any spiritual powers to predict your future if you stay on this path.”

Bolin was silent, trying to take in what Korra had just told him, but then, he found a question to potentially keep fuelling his hatred of Omashu.

“Why did you come here then?” he asked. “Why do you do the ‘dirty work’ as you just called it, for the king of Omashu?”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learnt during my life,” Korra said, thinking of herself, “is that this world is ruled by hatred. Amon, Unalok, the Red Lotus and the Earth Empire were all just random people who had the power to act on their feelings of hurt. I’ve hated others many times. And you know what? Some people do deserve to die. Some people are so despicable that they should be wiped from the face of the earth. I realised that very recently.” Korra thought again of Azula, and Azami’s headless body falling to the ground. “But as the Avatar, my job is to bring peace and balance to the world. Sometimes, I will have to be unpopular in order to restore balance, even if I don’t like it.

“By working with King Siya,” Korra continued, “I hope that I can save a lot more lives than will be lost by trying to bring his ego down. So I am pleading you to leave Omashu before I have to bring you to him.”

Korra’s words struck a deep chord with Bolin, much deeper than Mako’s had ever managed to poke at. He felt like he might relent from the anger that he thought could only be justified through pain of Omashu. But then, he looked at the scar on his hand. The scar he had dug into his palm when he had seen the anguish from Meng. The familial bond that had been cut off forever, because of Omashu’s actions.

“No!” he declared, determined, staring at her in the eyes, leading to a grunt frustration from Korra. “I can’t forgive Omashu!”

“Bolin,” Korra warned, a sharp edge to her voice. “I’m dead serious. Leave now, or I will bring you to the king. This is an offer on account of our past friendship, which I still cherish fondly.”

“No!” Bolin reinforced, backing away to get a little bit of distance between them.

“Final chance,” Korra offered, a heavy feeling setting upon her heart. A feeling of dread.

“No!” Bolin repeated, and Korra sighed.

“Why did it have to come to this?” Korra muttered, then shoved all her personal feelings out the window. With a heart of stone, she brought her fist back, and powered an air-punch at Bolin, silently cursing at Omashu for forcing her into this.


	46. Friend or Foe?

Korra threw an air-punch at Bolin, who was already backing away. He dodged under it, but Korra followed it up with another four punches of air. Bolin realised that he couldn’t evade them all, and turned to face Korra. He punched on the ground with both fists, erecting a wall which comfortably protected him. Bolin kicked the wall, planting his heel into it, and it flew at Korra. She was ready for that move though, already pinpointing the exact spot in the wall that she wanted to blow up. Korra inhaled deeply, and glared at the onrushing slab of earth.

A bullet of compressed fire shot out of Korra’s forehead, exploding just before it made contact with the wall. Chunks of rock flew everywhere, mostly back at Bolin, but he just bent any that were heading for him out of the way.

“That’s a really impressive power!” Bolin said, although it didn’t sound like a complement. They were standing about fifteen metres apart from each other. “Why don’t you just hit me with that now?”

“You’re my friend, Bolin!” Korra insisted, hating the fact that it had come to this. “I’m not going to kill you!”

“You’re trying to bring me to the rotten king up there!” Bolin told Korra menacingly, pointing behind his back with his thumb, without taking his eyes off of her. “I’ll be as good as dead if he gets a hold of me!”

“Then leave now, while you still have the chance!” Korra urged Bolin desperately. She was holding off on another attack, hoping that words would work. “We can pretend we never saw each other here!”

“No!” Bolin shouted. “If you’re with them, then I have no other choice but to fight you!”

 _He’s delusional_ , Korra thought. Words couldn’t express the pity she was feeling.

Actions could express what Bolin was feeling, however. He stomped on the ground as hard as he could, six solid blocks of earth hovering up in front of him. He kicked in Korra’s direction, and they all flew at her, but Bolin wasn’t done there. Next, he brought his fists up high above his head to his left, then dragged them down sharply in a diagonal line to his right. The wall of the building Korra happened to be standing beside collapsed, diverting her immediate attention. Then, he jumped forward onto one knee, slamming the sides of his fists into the ground. Korra could feel a small rubble start to travel through the earth towards her.

Korra used part of the wall that Bolin had collapsed on her to shield herself from the barrage of earth blocks. She thought she was pretty clever, but Bolin had actually delayed sending one block by half a second, so as Korra used the crumpled wall to swipe away five of the earth blocks, the sixth came in, unopposed. Korra was helpless to do anything as it smashed into her leg, causing her to fall on her front. Then, she cried out in surprise more than fear as she was catapulted backwards through the air, the ripple having erupted just underneath her. Korra flailed about for a second before she managed to balance her body out and cushion her fall with a strong torrent of air. She landed softly, but was hurt a little by the block of earth.

“I’m going easy on you at the minute!” Bolin warned. “If you keep this up, I’ll attack you with lava!”

“Bring it!” Korra challenged, adrenaline starting to pump through her veins. “I’ll help you out of the ditch you’ve fallen into whatever way I can!” Korra felt a flow of water under their feet, and spotted a nearby drain. She brought her hands down, all of her fingers pointed, then flung them in the direction of Bolin.

Gallons of water burst out from the drain, ripping away the metal. It sped ferociously at Bolin, enough force to smash through a window, but he wasn’t going to be beaten by what was effective a giant hose. Bolin melted the ground to his right into lava, then sent it at the stream of water barrelling down on top of him. They collided with a loud hiiisss, fog expanding out rapidly from the point of contact. It shrouded over both of Korra and Bolin, blinding them temporarily, but Korra didn’t want to give him a chance to give her the slip. She brought her hands back, having let go of the water, and clapped them forward. An almighty gust blew away the fog, smashing into Bolin and knocking him a few steps back.

Korra pounced on the chance to catch him off guard, pushing her palms into the paved stone and shaking them. A small tremor, barely enough to fill the street, rumbled towards Bolin, travelling fast over the cooled lava.

The former actor wasn’t about to be caught off guard so soon though, and jumped into a strong stance. He countered with his own small tremor, and their attacks wrestled harmlessly in front of him, spitting up rocks.

 _As I thought_ , Korra admitted to herself. _I’m going to have to go at him with the intent to kill with everything other than combustion bending. I’m too rusty at everything apart from firebending to only go eighty percent_.

“You want to get nasty?” Korra called out rhetorically. “Fine by me!”

Korra took a deep breath, and swept her hands, which had been down her sides, at Bolin. Instead of water though, this time, blue fire roared out from the ground in front of her to fill the street, creating a tunnel of bright blue flames. Bolin’s eyes widened as he felt the intensity of the heat even from twenty metres away, and sprinted behind into a different alley from the one he had come out of. He wasn’t the fastest at acceleration, but with a dive, he just about managed to just about beat Korra’s fire. It bellowed just past Bolin, nicking the soles of his shoes.

 _That’s no joke_ , Bolin thought, any complacency he might have had before out the window. _She’s the Avatar, if I don’t go at her with everything I’ve got, she’ll beat me. I don’t know where she learnt to do that, but it’s hotter than what normal firebenders usually produce._

“Why don’t you use the Avatar State, or bloodbend me?” he called, peaking at her with one eye once the onslaught had died down. “It’d all be over in a second. That would be a lot easier, wouldn’t it?” This was a genuine question.

“If I need to resort to using the Avatar State to save an old friend,” Korra began, “what good am I to stop a war between two of the most prominent cities in the world?”

“I’m not ordinary lavabender!” Bolin informed her. “Maybe you don’t know how much I’ve come on in the last two years, so I’ll show you!”

Bolin jumped out from the alley, swinging his fists around. A thick stream, more like a river, of lava burst out of ground that had been cool just a few seconds ago. Korra's eyes widened as the lava came from above diagonally down towards her. She held out her hands, catching the lava in mid-air, finding it to be extremely heavy. Korra grunted as she struggled to part it off harmlessly to her sides. Bolin incredibly followed this attack up without an excess of effort by sending another tremor towards his old friend, except this time, it was a tremor of lava.

Korra stomped one foot at Bolin's attack, all she could spare, replying with her own tremor of lava. Bolin’s easily washed over Korra's pitiful attempt though, and she realised that she was either going to be crushed by the lava trying to pour onto her, or the wave coming to gobble her up from underneath. Korra reluctantly blasted fire out from her feet, flying away Bolin's double attack. She hovered away from the lava, which lit up the street, regarding Bolin warily.

"That's some very impressive new fire you have there!" Bolin called out. "It's a pity you forgot to keep sharp with your lavabending!"

Korra almost smiled as an old memory came to her head, of her assuring Bolin that he was still talented just because she had learnt she could lavabend, back in the old probending gym. He'd been pretty good back then, but she had to admit the amount of progress he had shown since then was astonishing. Her shame at being forced to retreat as an earthbender was more meaningful to her, however. It was considered a big physiological advance if you could get your opposite earthbender to retreat in a fight, which Bolin had just done to Korra.

Korra didn't dwell on it for long, as hesitancy was also seen as a sign of weakness. She landed, a few metres in front of the lava, cooling it as fast as she could. She then pulled a fair amount of water out of a nearby second drain, the first one now covered with lava, and circled her hands around her body. The water formed into a one foot-thick loop, circling endlessly around Korra. She jabbed twenty times at Bolin with both hands, icicles shooting out. They would tear a hole straight through his body if they made contact, but Bolin wasn't ready to be a test subject for that. He raised a wall of lava in front of him. All the icicles sank in harmlessly and didn’t come out the other side.

Bolin dropped the wall as soon as Korra was done, and sent another huge stream of lava towards the woman he once asked out on a date as a teenager. Korra put her pride behind her, and flew away from the stream. Bolin wasn't going to give up just like that though, so he kept on chasing Korra with it while she flew away, always making sure that she couldn't get closer to him.

Lava splattered all over the buildings, but luckily, it was a commercial district, so it was deserted with the curfew. Korra had started the fight knowing that this was as good a place as any to potentially destroy, although it was strange not to have something like suburbs close to the great wall, in her opinion.

When Korra managed to get a good fifteen metres in between herself and the stream after a playing a little game of cat and mouse, she stared right at it. Korra shot a combustion bending bullet right into its heart, causing the stream to implode from the inside.

Korra doubted it would be too long until the law enforcement showed up, but she didn’t want to hand Bolin over to them, without her supervision that he wasn’t hurt. It wasn’t uncommon at all for prisoners to be killed during war by their enemies because ‘they were resisting'.

Korra punched a whirlwind at Bolin. Due to the general darkness, he didn’t see it coming. It smashed into him and he was sent flying backwards into a wall. Korra flew on her rockets over to where he had been standing, and brought her fist back. Bolin saw that she was about to unleash a big move, so he just kicked a nearby piece of debris at her wildly. Luckily for him, it was on target, and Korra’s blue fireball was cancelled out by his rock. Bolin pushed himself up.

Or at least he tried to. He was trying to keep his eyes on Korra, but for some reason, his hand was stuck to the ground. Bolin glanced to his left arm, and was startled to see that it had been frozen in ice, all the water coming from the drain he had unconsciously put his hand on. He tugged and tugged, but the ice was too thick for him to just crack through pure muscle. He cursed himself for not paying attention to the suddenly numb feeling that come over his hand.

 _Now’s your chance_ , Vaatu suddenly whispered to Korra as she watched him desperately scramble. _He’s at your mercy. Kill him._

 _I’m not going to kill Bolin!_ Korra retorted angrily in her mind. _And it’s very convenient for you to speak up now, considering that you’ve been quiet the time in between Azula and now. I’ve been trying to speak to you_!

 _Don’t let your indecision cost lives, Korra_ , Vaatu told her, ignoring her comment. _He made no secret of how he wants to make the people of Omashu suffer. It’ll be so much easier than Azula. I just reflect on your deepest feelings, Korra._

 _Piss off!_ Korra snapped mentally. _You didn’t talk to me earlier when I used your power to fly into Omashu, so don’t give me advice now! And you know everything about me, so you know that I don’t want to kill him! I’m not so gullible to do your bidding for you like that_!

 _You must do something,_ he whispered, trying to pick away at the strings of Korra’s sanity, but she just shoved him away, and walked up to Bolin.

“Bolin,” Korra said, and he stopped scrambling to look at her, confused amidst his rage.

“Why haven’t you finished me?” he asked, ceasing his efforts for the time being, which were fruitless anyway.

“I'm giving you one last chance, Bolin,” Korra warned. “In my head, you’re still the sweet guy who asked me out on my first ever date, even if I didn’t see it like that. I don’t want to kill you!” She pulled a sliver of water out of the drain, fashioning it threateningly into a whip, exaggerating the process to hopefully scare him. “But I’m not afraid to take drastic measures to create peace.”

“Like what?!” Bolin challenged, chucking a rock at her. She deflected it harmlessly, and sighed. With that, Korra removed all of the good qualities she remembered from her old friend temporarily, and brought the whip crashing down onto his thigh. Bolin cried out in pain as she struck him.

“As I’m sure you already know, this is pleasant compared to the emotional trauma you’ve gone through recently!” Korra told him, and lashed at him again, resulting in another whelp. “But if King Siya gets a hold of you, his torture will be so, so, so much worse than this!”

Korra smacked him again, although strangely, it actually didn’t feel nearly as bad as she anticipated it would. That made it easier to hit him again and again, without remorse. She found it a little disturbing how guilt-free she felt to beat him, but continued anyway. After ten or so strokes, Korra stopped, standing over him. “Had a change of heart yet?” There was silence for a few seconds, before Bolin spoke.

“There is nothing,” Bolin started, his breathing ragged, “Omashu can do to bring back those dead children, and my friend!”

Suddenly, he brought his hand, which Korra thought was securely encased, in a wide arc, a small whip of lava following it. Korra jumped back with airbending instinctively, cursing her complacency as she spotted that the ice had been melted very subtly. Bolin used the moment of her jumping away to create a small but deep moat of lava in between them. When she got back into a fighting stance, he had already lengthened his lava whip considerably. Korra slashed her water whip at Bolin, but it was no match for his lava, and evaporated on contact with his whip. She tried to take more water out of the drain, but then realised that he’d cleverly clogged that with lava, too much for her to conveniently remove.

 _Use combustion bending_ , Vaatu suggested as Bolin began to fire high speed volleys of lava, which Korra was barely able to bat away. _You’ll die if you keep this up. Blow him to pieces._

 _If I want your advice, I’ll ask for it!_ Korra thought, not even considering his words for a moment, although somehow, it was slightly tempting, in a twisted way.

When she got a brief let up as Bolin ran out of breath, Korra punched the ground with both fists. A wall rose up, which she promptly kicked at him as hard as she could. The young lavabender didn’t have any time to dodge it, so Bolin just devoted all his concentration to stopping it. He caught it just a few inches in front of his nose, a lot of his energy already sapped.

Korra wasn’t nearly as tired though, a result of all the intense fitness from Crescent Island keeping her in prime shape. She shot a small bullet of compressed flames out of her tattoo, exhaling sharply right as it was a few inches in front of the wall. It exploded, shattering the wall into pieces and smashing Bolin into the same building for the second time in a few minutes.

Bolin took it with a grunt, grimacing as several different spots in his back started to flare up with pain. He couldn’t move very freely, so when he managed to get up, he wasn’t agile enough to go throwing around lava like before. He looked around, and saw a bunch of rocks lying all of the place, the wall that Korra had just blown up. He started hurling these rocks at Korra. Korra could see how sloppy and lethargic his technique was though, and bent away the attacks with ease. When he had finally run out of rocks, Bolin just erected another wall, standing back this time to avoid the worst of the explosion he knew he was bringing on himself. He was knackered, and needed every chance to recuperate he could get.

 _That won’t buy you shit_ , Korra thought, reading his intentions. She inhaled deeply, tensing her body up, but this time, instead of going for the wall, she aimed beside it. The bullet shot out and travelled behind Bolin’s defence, landing a few feet away from him. The master lavabender was helpless to do anything as it exploded, his wall offering no protection.

Bolin was thrown out of his hiding spot, well over the moat of lava. He landed roughly on the ground, scraping the side of his face and arm open, ripping his clothes apart in the process too. He coughed and spluttered, tumbling along, but the rush of adrenaline somehow managed to keep him awake.

Bolin stood up unevenly on his feet, yet still giving Korra a cold look. His blood dripped freely to the paved stone beneath him, but he paid no attention to the injuries.

“I won’t stop fighting for my friends and students until I avenge them, even if it means death itself!” Bolin declared, standing up to his full height.

Bolin mustered the reserves of his energy, looking at the scar on his hand for motivation. His blood boiled with the thought of the injustice dealt to Ling and his students. He reached for the lava in the moat, and dragged out two long slivers of the molten rock to his hands. He lashed out at Korra with the twin whips of lava, swiping recklessly.

 _He really is stubborn_ , Korra thought, sadly accepting that he really meant to kill her. She flew away on her blue rockets, swerving just out of the reach of his whips, not entire confident she could win in a wrestling contest of lava against Bolin.

 _Use my power!_ Vaatu practically demanded inside of Korra’s head.

 _Not unless I have to,_ Korra told him, sending an air slash at Bolin while she hovered on the two rockets beneath her feet. He sidestepped it easily, then really went at her with the lava whips, going flat out. Korra tossed her pride as an earthbender out the window, and flew backwards to safely avoid the reach of Bolin. When she landed, Bolin let his whips splatter onto the floor, not wanting to waste any energy in keeping them up.

 _Cool the lava_ , Vaatu advised. _It’s only putting him at an advantage._

Korra was about to snap back at him for talking up, but then thought about what Vaatu had said, and realised that it was actually a good idea. She splayed her arms out wide, feeling for every drop of lava in the vicinity. Then, once she had got a hold of it all, she exhaled slowly out through her mouth, letting her arms slowly drop while she was at it. All the lava cooled into firstly warm, soft rock, then cold, hard stone. Bolin didn’t do anything while she cooled it, suspiciously enough, watching the ember glow of what were his whips darken without a reaction.

“Finally come to your senses?” Korra called out sarcastically. Bolin took it as insult, unfortunately.

Bolin stomped on the ground, and four big enough blocks of earth levitated up in the air. He spun, and powered them at Korra with a roundhouse kick. She simply danced out of the way, these rocks no match for the 'be like the leaf' training for airbending. But that was actually just a distraction for his next move.

The master lavabender pushed his fists above his head, struggling to keep on going with his current energy levels, but still managed to raise a boulder twice the size of an Earth Empire mechasuit out of the ground, tearing up the street in the process. Korra could hear soldiers shouting in the distance, rushing towards the scene of her and Bolin’s ongoing battle. They’d be here in a minute or two.

This is my fight, Korra thought, determined to see the battle that she had started to the end. And please, Bolin, you just made it easier for me. The bigger the target, the better.

Just as Bolin was about to lob the massive boulder at her, Korra mustered her rage into one tiny dense ball, still loathing the man who had rejected her daughter over a year from the present now. She opened her third eye, the one on her forehead, and a bullet of resentment for the brother of the man she was fighting blitzed out of her forehead, making contact with the huge boulder. It exploded, the massive chunk of earth bearing seemingly no resistance as it shattered into thousands upon thousands of tiny, sharp pebbles, flying out in every direction. Bolin was barely able to halt the ones that fell directly above him.

When the hail of stones stopped after about seven or so seconds, Bolin fell to one knee, glancing up at Korra, his energy gone. Korra saw her opportunity, and front-flipped forward, two thick gusts of air flying at Bolin from her feet. He wasn’t able to get out of the way, and was sent tumbling back as they collided with him.

Bolin lay on the ground, defeated. Korra could hear the shouts of the law enforcement approach, only a hundred metres away now by the sound of it.

“Maybe I can talk some sense into you now,” Korra said hopefully. She hauled Bolin up onto her shoulders, only remembering how heavy he was as she did so, and glided back to the alley he had come out onto the street from not too long ago, on her rockets.

Korra sealed it off with earthbending behind her seamlessly, just as she heard soldiers burst around the corner, shouting orders at each other. Korra just kept on walking, not wanting to have to deal with them at the minute, and thankfully, her plan was worked as the soldiers quickly started to spread out in all directions but the alleys. When Korra had gotten far enough, she dropped Bolin on the piss-stained ground, resulting in him letting out a moan. He rolled over, and started to make for an attack, but Korra wasn’t feeling generous.

The water-tribe woman put one hand on the back of Bolin’s head and smashed it off the wall. Bolin slumped, barely able to stay conscious, but that wasn’t enough for Korra. She sat him up and started beating the shit out him, smacking him with hook after hook right in the jaw. Korra broke it after three strikes, and didn’t stop until she saw plenty of blood.

“Have you learnt your lesson yet?” Korra asked sarcastically after a minute, bending his blood off her knuckles.

“You’re figh-hing…” he started, missing a tooth to add to the broken jaw, broken nose and two black eyes he had. “…on the wronh sigh, Kohhrra.”

“There’s no right or wrong side in war,” Korra told her old probending teammate, hands on her hips, standing over him. “History is written by the victors, and they describe the war in their own way. One guarantee, though…” she said, leaning closer, “is tragedy. Now, I will give you one last chance to avoid all of that. Leave now, or I am personally going to bring you to the king. Or…”

“Wha’s my thir option?” Bolin asked, blood flowing freely out of the corners of his mouth.

“Or,” Korra continued, cracking her knuckles loudly, “I can try teach you a lesson the hard way. I don’t get any pleasure out of it, but I certainly don’t mind it either.” That wasn’t a bluff. Korra was prepared to beat Bolin up until he was near-death to make him understand. Bolin contemplated his choices for a moment, then gave Korra his reply.

“I will never run away from a figh! I will avenge my friehhns,” he blubbered defiantly, leaving Korra with no other option. She had been prepared to deliver on her promise, and that was what she was going to do now. He’d had his chances, and turned them down. It was all his own fault for not accepting her offers, and would probably be written on his tombstone for all Korra cared anymore. She hauled him up with her good arm, pinning Bolin against the wall with only one hand.

“This is all your fault,” Korra told him, and rubbed her eyes, a little weary from the fight they’d just had. But Bolin had one final card left to play.

As Bolin saw Korra rub her eyes through his swollen eyelids, he remembered a move that he’d been shown by Mako on the way over for if anyone ever grabbed you by the hem of your shirt, exactly like Korra was doing now.

Bolin supported all his weight on his two feet, and brought his right elbow across down on her arm with as much force as he could. He looped his hand under her tricep to grab the hem of her shirt. Korra didn’t expect any more resistance from Bolin, and mumbled something inaudible something as she was startled, but Bolin had all the momentum as she had unintentionally leaned forward. While she did that, Bolin hooked his foot behind her front-most foot, and swiped her leg out from underneath her as he pushed her collarbone. Korra could do nothing as Bolin slammed her back into the ground unexpectedly, winding her.

 _I thought he was finished_ , Korra thought, watching helplessly as he leaped onto her stomach, deriving her of even more oxygen.

 _This is why you should’ve used me earlier to defeat him_! Vaatu scolded, Korra watching in disbelief as Bolin straightened her arm out vertically, putting his knee against her tricep. He unravelled his arm from Korra's, and grabbed her forearm with both hands, leaning backwards.

 _Now, Korra_! Vaatu urged.

 _No_! she protested mentally, therefore watching helplessly as Bolin put all of his strength into one violent tug backwards.

Korra’s elbow snapped in two, the sharp crack echoing all around the alley, as she waited for the pain. Nothing serious happened for two seconds, then it all rushed in at once, flooding her head.

Korra screamed a breathless scream, all sense of place and time being lost in the flood. She squirmed, but under his weight, she couldn’t just wiggle out from underneath him. The ache in her elbow joint burnt out the numbness in her forearm as she writhed in agony. At first, she felt faint, but as the seconds passed and the pain didn’t go away, she felt dizzy, and then sick as an add-on to that.

The only thing Korra could sense through the distortion was one murky lifeline of power. She grasped it.

Bolin brought his fist back to deal to Korra the same punishment she had dealt to his face just there, intent on levelling her nose. But just as he was about to apply the force, his fist stopped, unresponsive. He tried to drive through with the punching action, but his arm was rigid. Bolin tried to stand up, seeing as something wasn’t right, but now, his legs wouldn’t respond to his brain either. He glanced down at Korra, and for the first time ever since he had cut his palm open a month ago, he truly felt fear.

Korra’s tattoo was glowing a hazy red, the type that made you want to look away because it creeped into your soul, and when she opened her eyes, they emitted the same red. Bolin’s limbs suddenly twisted behind his back without warning, and he cried out as he was bloodbent off of Korra, onto his knees.

 _This is what Mako told me about,_ Bolin realised, all of his bravado suddenly crumpling at the sight of true power. _This is what happened at the South Pole! It’s also just like that time with Unalok!_

 _Kill him, Korra_! Vaatu demanded, his voice bounding around her head instead of a whisper like usual. He had his chance!

 _No_ , Korra replied, barely hanging onto her conscience. _I’ll make him wish he was, though_!

Korra stood up, snarling, Bolin unable to see the same woman as before in front of him. She used the fingers on her only working hand to get him into position, then stood over Bolin, her fury threatening to bring the walls around them toppling down all on its own. Korra jabbed her thumb at Bolin, planting it in the middle of his forehead.

“No, no, no,” Bolin whimpered as he realised what Korra was about to do. He’d witnessed it happen once before, and was very close to suffering the same fate all those years ago, but back then, Korra had rescued him, along with Mako. How things had changed.

Korra focused in on Bolin’s chi points, four on each side of his upper body, eight altogether. She violently cut off the first point, starting on his right side, resulting in a groan from Bolin. She continued upwards, shutting off the other three points where chi began to circulate around his body along with the blood. She took a tiny bit of extra care when cutting off the point nearest to his heart, making sure not to snap any arteries: she wanted him to live with the sorrow. The young Avatar continued to snap the remaining points shut, until she was done. When Korra felt sure that she hadn’t left any points partially open, she released her vice on Bolin, and the glow receded.

Bolin fell backwards, feeling as though his soul had just been sucked out, as Korra finished her job. She stumbled back, her shoulders slumped, the effort of going into the Avatar State through Vaatu no easy ordeal when emotionally driven.

 _She really did it_ , Bolin thought as he swung an arm at Korra, but no attack followed.

 _It’s a shame_ , Korra thought, exhausted from the ordeal, as the pain from her swollen elbow, which was pointing in a 45 angle in the wrong direction, started to register again. But even as her senses returned, she couldn’t even summon up the tiniest bit of remorse for the man collapsed in front of her, even as beaten up and bruised as he was.

Korra genuinely didn’t feel bad in the slightest for Bolin. Maybe it was the influence of Vaatu, or just her developing a ruthless streak. Either way, she saw it as a worse punishment to be left alone and grovel in the dirt, than be acknowledged by the king, however that acknowledgment might come, so she decided that she’d abandon him here.

Korra knew how the isolated mind could build on its own misery just fine. If she did feel anything sad for him, it was pity for what he had become, but other than that, she was just fulfilling her duty as the Avatar.

Bolin felt as if his body was hollowing in, as his fears were confirmed. He gazed up at Korra, but ironically, wasn’t even able to feel a shred of anger towards her. Just the crushing depression of the fact that his life had just been changed forever, in a bad, bad way.

“Dih you do ih?” he slurred. “Dih you really do ih?”

“Yes,” Korra told Bolin. “And it’s all your own fault.”

Bolin’s head slumped back as the fact that his ability to earthbend, and lavabend, for that matter, was gone, taken away by none other than his old friend Korra.


	47. Collision Course

Mako paced himself as hard as he could, having had to take the long way around to make sure that he didn’t get caught, but annoyingly, he’d got lost. They had only arrived in those cabbage carts a few days ago, after all, so most of the city, which he ran around at night, was hard to recognise at the minute. He hated every minute of this operation, praying that it would come to an end soon enough. Bolin had shown him the alleyways to run back through when he was done.

 _This is such a shithole_! Mako cursed mentally as he kept on running as hard as he could. He didn’t like setting that building on fire one bit, but if he was to stay here in Omashu until Bolin got out of this mess in one piece, then he would need to go along with his younger brother’s misplaced ideals. He had long passed the restaurant which Bolin had destroyed, which had already been cooled down a while ago. He was proceeding along the skinny alleyways, following a trail probably caused by Bolin. In the distance, he thought he saw some kind of blue light dotting around in the sky, but ignored it.

Bolin and Mako had a rendezvous point, which would be a commercial street that the alleyways led to. After that, they would go to a sympathiser's house, and stay there for the night. This inner city was effectively like the Middle Ring in Ba Sing Sae, any beggars seen by the law thrown out, so that made their mission all the harder. The other seven lavabenders were in two different groups, and had two different houses to go to. It was a rule that the other two groups didn’t know where you were staying, as that information could be tortured out of you. Just another casual fact.

Mako’s heart stopped as he rounded one of the final turns. He skidded to a halt ten metres away from a horrific sight. He wanted the ground to permanently swallow him up. He trembled as he tried to keep the bile in his throat from coming out of his mouth. In front of him was the motionless body of a stocky young man. His features were bruised horribly, several of his facial bones broken, by the looks of it. Bolin lay still.

“He can’t have…” Mako mumbled, tears starting to form at the corners of his eyes. He gritted his teeth together, trying not to let a whimper of heartache escape from his mouth. Mako trudged over to Bolin, incapable of tearing his eyes away from the sight in front of him. He could barely make out Bolin’s features from this close, that was how badly he’d been messed up.

 _I’ve failed,_ Mako realised _. I’ve failed. I’ve failed to protect my daughter by not being there for her, and now I’ve failed to protect the only other family member I have left in this world. I’m a deplorable excuse of a brother and a father_!

Mako knelt down by his stricken brother's side, cursing himself for not being there when it mattered most for Bolin. That was the one reason he’d put up with this mess, for crying out loud, to help his confused little brother get out alive! And now, by the looks of it, the opposite had occurred. Bolin was dead.

Mako wallowed quietly on his brother’s chest, the worst grief he had ever felt in his life crushing his soul. His salty tears flowed freely onto Bolin’s chest, which was stained with blood. Mako truly felt that he had never felt this horrible in his entire life. Even when his parents had been killed, he hadn’t felt this level of sorrow. Maybe because he had known Bolin much longer, and had gone through all the hardships of growing up alongside him, only to have him snatched away now as a young adult.

“NOOO!!!” Mako wailed, breaking down. He had gone through plenty of low points in his life, and the depression he had gone through just a year ago after he found out the truth about Hazukk was in no way, shape or form a joke. But now, when Mako saw a shard of glass just by the wall in front of him, he truly contemplated sticking it in his throat, to commit suicide. He saw no real place for himself on this planet anymore. He didn’t even want to dare think what would happen if he held the responsibility of a small, young girl on his shoulders.

Mako reached over for the shard of glass. It was from a beer glass, by the looks of it. It didn’t matter where it came from though, in Mako’s eyes, as long as it was sharp and pointed. He stretched over to grab it, but frustratingly, it was just a few inches out of his reach. He feebly extended his shoulder out of its socket, sniffling as he was at it, but still couldn’t reach. He growled a little, trying his hardest to get the brown piece of glass, but eventually, the former commander conceded, after a minute of hard effort.

Mako stood up, about to step over Bolin, but even then, the universe wasn’t done playing with him. He slipped from a tiny puddle of water that Bolin had been lying over, and kneed Bolin in the gut while he was falling over. Bolin wheezed, while Mako miserably grabbed a hold of the shard, a few seconds away from joining Bolin on the other side.

Mako stopped, and jerked his head back at his younger brother. Bolin was suddenly looking up at Mako with one squinted eye. The other was swollen shut. Mako blinked, then had a double take as Bolin and Mako just stared at each other silently for a few seconds.

“Mako, why are you crying?” Bolin asked, in a whisper. Bolin was referring to Mako’s puffy red eyes, and the tears streaming down his older brother’s face. “And when did you get here?”

Mako’s breath caught in his mouth, disbelief shrouding every corner of his mind. He just stared at Bolin, ninety percent sure that he was hallucinating. Mako cautiously poked Bolin in the jaw, who groaned at the contact. Mako would’ve had a mental breakdown right there and then, but he forced himself to stay in the moment, amidst his whirlwind of conflicting emotions.

“She healed it, so it’ll be fine in a few days,” Bolin told Mako, his voice completely neutral, no emotion coming out whatsoever. “But until then, I can’t have any physical contact with it. I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to eat.”

“You’re alive?” Mako asked, daring to believe.

“Yes,” Bolin rasped, gazing at the stars, albeit strangely with a sigh. “But I really shouldn’t be. Let’s leave, Mako, before we, or rather, I get into any more trouble.”

“You’re alive!” Mako cried, his crippling sadness from just a few moments ago switching to the purest form of relief possible. He cried endlessly with tears of joy into Bolin’s shirt for the next few minutes, unable to express how worried he had been to his younger brother. Bolin just let Mako cry his heart out, but didn’t move the entire time. When Mako had gotten over the initial flurry of emotions, he tried to help his younger brother to his feet, but Bolin moaned in pain when Mako touched him.

“What’s the matter?” Mako asked, wanting to get Bolin to help as soon as possible. “Is your back hurt?”

“I got smashed into a wall twice,” Bolin said dryly, still gazing up at the stars. “So I’ll be very lucky if I haven’t slipped a disc or something like that.”

“Who did this to you?!” Mako demanded suddenly, itching to wreak havoc on whoever injured his brother so badly to the point that Mako had thought he was dead.

“Didn’t you hear what I said?” Bolin asked Mako. “I want to go home. To forget all of this ever happened. Let’s leave, Mako. I’m so sorry for pissing on Ling and everyone else's legacies. I should’ve listened to you back in Ba Sing Sae, but I let my rage blind me.”

“Go home?” Mako repeated, taking a second to register the meaning of Bolin’s words. He looked at his brother, but Bolin wasn’t joking. “I mean… of course! But, aren’t you still…”

“Angry?” Bolin finished bluntly for Mako, to which the elder sibling nodded. “Not any more. Although, even if I did want to keep going, I couldn’t.”

“What do you mean?” Mako asked. “You’re not able to? Have you broken a bone or something?”

“It’s much worse than that,” Bolin said, and painfully started to push himself up.

“Don’t do anything reckless!” Mako urged him, ushering for Bolin to sit back down, but the twenty-one-year-old, soon to be twenty-two, ignored his older brother’s advice.

“I got several chances to quit,” Bolin told Mako, “but I stubbornly refused them all. But when she took it, it’s like she took away the filter that I’ve seen life through ever since Ling's death as well.” Bolin hit the ground with his palm. “I feel really empty right now, but honestly, I’m able to see everything that’s happened in a neutral perspective because of that. And I can see how shallow of a human being I became too, while I was at it.” Bolin hit the ground with his palm again.

After a few attempts, Mako realised that Bolin was trying to earthbend, but nothing was happening. “Did you get chi-blocked?” he asked.

“In a way, yeah,” Bolin answered, not showing any happiness or sadness in his replies. “But this is the real deal. It’s not gone just for an hour. It’s permanent.” Bolin pursed his lips as Mako tried to make sense of what his brother had just told him.

“What do you mean 'this is the real deal'?” Mako questioned.

“It’s gone,” Bolin repeated. “Forever. I can’t earthbend anymore.”

Mako just stared at Bolin, going over what his brother had just told him, and then double-checked. He would’ve laughed any other time, but Bolin wasn’t saying it in a joking manner.

"Are you drunk!?" Mako demanded, even though that was highly unlikely. It seemed that Bolin was dead serious.

"I wish I was," Bolin said, taking deep breaths. "But in fact, I've never felt more sober in my entire life." He stiffly put an arm on Mako's shoulder. "Come on, let's go. I'm not making a joke, by the way."

"H-h-h-how?" Mako asked, shock starting to set in once again. Mako pinched himself, as if it was a horrible dream, but his surroundings weren't those created by his own imagination. "Who?!"

"Who do you think?" Bolin posed the question. "Who in the world could possibly have the power to take my bending away?"

"Amon," Mako suggested, although he didn't even consider that for a moment. There was only one person in mind that could perform such a feat, and he hated to think that she would do something like this.

"I haven't heard of him in years," Bolin told his brother. "There's only one more option. Just say it, Mako."

Mako stayed silent for a few seconds, incapable of summoning the name from his mouth. He desperately didn't want it to be the truth, but as he looked into Bolin's emerald eyes, his suspicion was projected out of his own amber pupils. He found no way of avoiding the truth, and whispered the name out, as if he would be smitten by a god if he uttered it too loud. " _Korra_?"

"Yep," Bolin confirmed. "She gave me multiple chances to leave, and I turned them all down. She's still in the city, by the way. You can probably see her flying around." He budged over to the wall, and sat against it. "She healed my jaw, for some reason. I'm not sure why, but maybe she thought I might die if I couldn't eat."

"Korra..." Mako repeated, a major shock hitting him for the third time in a few minutes. "Did... did she do all of this to you? I mean, your face too?"

"She did," Bolin confirmed, very gently brushing over his face to feel how bad the damage was. "I must look like I've had my face smashed in with a hammer, huh?"

"Something like it," Mako said, resulting in a humourless chuckle from the former earthbender. "You two must've fought?"

"We did," Bolin started, "but I was no match for her, really. She could've killed me several times if she wanted to."

"Why would she take your bending away, then?" Mako demanded. "She nearly killed herself when it happened to her, so why on earth would she do it to you?!" Mako's shock was starting to change a little bit, to something a bit darker. "Who does she think she is?!"

"You want to fight her?" Bolin asked, raising an eyebrow, but even that caused pain.

"Maybe!" Mako responded, standing up, and started pacing back and forth in circles. "I agree that you were badly mistaken by coming here in the first place, but taking away your bending is like losing an arm! And your whole lavabending school will have to do without you now, so you've lost your business too!"

"I don't really care about money," Bolin told Mako honestly. "I just want to apologise to everyone and then maybe move back in with Opal. Let's leave."

"I can't leave just yet!" Mako declared. "I'm going to talk to her, about everything! I know that I was horribly in the wrong about Kalla, but I can't let this slide! Where can I find her?!"

"Mako, look at me," Bolin warned, causing his older brother to glance over at his disfigured features. "You don't stand a chance. She can bloodbend you if you actually manage to get her in a corner."

"I beat Amon when he was bloodbending me," Mako argued. "And besides, it's not a full moon tonight."

"She used the red Avatar State to do it," Bolin said, looking gravely at the ground. "Trust me, Mako, I've only ever felt more terrified when mom and dad died. Leave her be, you're looking at an example of where rash decisions against Korra will get you."

“It’s not just about you,” Mako told Bolin. “I’ve been waiting for the chance to make it up to her and Kalla for the last year, but she’s stepped over the line. No-one fucks with my family.”

“Did you hear me!?” Bolin asked, and stood up with great difficulty to look Mako in the face. He clutched his lower back while he did so. “You don’t stand a chance at fighting her!”

“Did you injure her at all in your fight?” Mako asked, not backing down. “Judging by your injuries, I’d say that it was rough for her too.”

“Not really,” Bolin admitted, although he didn’t seem embarrassed. “I mean, I broke one of her arms, but that was just lucky. She won’t fall for something like that again. And to add to that, she can firebend with her mind now. And I saw her heal her arm a fair bit before I passed out.”

“That means-“ Mako started, then had a double take. “Wait, she can firebend with her mind?”

“Yes!” Bolin reiterated. “Like the crazy tall woman from the Red Lotus right after you two broke up, and her fire is blue now too! I don’t know what that means, but it’s a lot hotter than regular orange or red fire, I can tell you that!”

Mako didn’t say anything as he had a flashback to his fight with Kenichi Shinoda, who was the only person he had ever encountered to be able to produce blue flames. He had been a small, sixty-year-old man, yet Mako remembered vividly how he was half a second from being executed by him. Shinoda couldn’t even firebend with his mind, or combustion bend, as somebody had called it, but his blue fire was deadly enough on its own. Mako calmed himself down, and started to think more rationally about what he was going to do. After a minute of hard consideration, he came to his conclusion:

“I’m not going to fight her,” Mako declared.

“Good,” Bolin said, relieved. “We’ll head back to the house, and I can get looked at tomorrow. They won’t bother keeping us here for much longer if I can’t lavabend.”

“You can go ahead if you want,” Mako offered. “But I have business with Korra.”

“That’s per-,” Bolin started, then he realised what Mako had said. “Wait, what?! Why? I thought you weren’t going to fight her!”

“I’m not,” Mako told his little brother. “We’re going to talk it out. I have no doubt in my mind that if I pass this opportunity up to talk about Kalla, I’ll be waiting ages for the next one. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t back away from confronting Korra about my mistakes.”

“Mako, no!” Bolin urged. “She’s in a piss-poor mood! The energy I sensed from her when she went into the dark Avatar State was horrible, and I don’t have a clue about spiritual stuff! Stay away from her at the minute, I’m sure that she’ll be in a better mood when this entire war has been stopped!”

“I don’t know when that will be,” Mako responded stubbornly. “How do I find her?”

“I’m not telling you,” Bolin replied. In his head, he noted how quickly things had been turned in the space of a few minutes. An hour ago, no, just even ten minutes ago, Mako would’ve done anything to tear Bolin away from the city. Now, Bolin was the one urging him to leave, but Mako wouldn’t leave now.

“Bolin,” Mako sighed, looking at his brother pleadingly. “Do you remember Ling’s message for me, right before he died?”

“Ling’s… last words?” Bolin questioned, tensing up. His breath temporarily caught in his throat as he thought of his best friend’s death. This did coax a little emotion out of Bolin, sadness. Before, it would’ve been rage, but now, he just didn’t have the conviction to get angry any more. He’d never imagined that having his bending taken away from him would have such a physiological effect.

“Never give up on Kalla,” Mako quoted. “That was his dying message for me, right?”

“It was,” Bolin confirmed, “but you’re taking it out of context! Listen to me carefully: Korra. Is. Unstable. Emotionally and physically!”

“Maybe you’ll understand if you have a child yourself,” Mako said, looking at Bolin gently. “But I can’t bear to be away from Kalla any longer. If I have a chance to make up with Korra, then I will grab hold of it with both hands! She definitely knows where Kalla is, I’m sure of it!”

Bolin tried to be stern with Mako, but just couldn’t find the energy. He was already zapped from the fight, struggling to stay standing up. He tried to get Mako to give in with one last look, but the firebender didn’t budge.

“Fine,” Bolin relented. “If that’s really how you feel.”

“Thank you,” Mako said, glad that he had permission from Bolin. “Now, how can I find her? Or do you even know?”

“It’s pretty easy,” Bolin told Mako, and pointed to the sky in the far-off distance. “See that bright-blue spark zooming around? That’s her firebending.”

“She can fly now!?” Mako asked, amazed, as he peered at the blue spark he vaguely remembered seeing earlier.

“I honestly don’t know how she’s gotten so great at firebending,” Bolin said. “She’s miles better than you now. She honestly is unstoppable when she goes full out. She can make you freeze with bloodbending, and blow you up with her mind. Also, she can lavabend, if you didn’t already know.”

“Fuckin' hell,” Mako muttered. “Does she need to go into the Avatar State to combustion bend?”

“No,” Bolin answered, then sat back down on his ass, knackered. “Good luck. I have faith in you.” He held out his fist.

“Thanks, Bo,” Mako replied, fist-bumping his sibling. The now-nonbender bade Mako farewell, and the young father started jogging back the way he came. He also noticed how that was the first time he’d called Bolin, “Bo”, ever since the former lavabending teacher had told Mako of his decision to go to war.

  
Twenty minutes later, Mako stopped, putting his hands on his knees. He’d had to run about three miles altogether just there in order to catch up to the mother of his child, who was hovering in the air fifty metres above him, seemingly unaware of his presence. He could vaguely make out that her right arm was limp, while two rockets of blue fire blasted out of her feet. She was on the lookout for new attacks, of course, but didn’t know that there weren’t any scheduled for another five days. That didn’t concern Mako though, as he only had one ambition on his mind. He took a deep breath, and then cupped his hands around his mouth.

“KORRA!” Mako bellowed, shattering the silence cloaking over the otherwise dead-quiet city.

Korra hovered in the air, clutching her head with her left hand, while her right arm hung limply. Vaatu was crowding the space in her head, like a monkey that wouldn’t let go of your leg. Korra could barely look in front of her without losing all concentration, having given up trying to search for lavabenders long ago. It had been half an hour since she healed Bolin’s jaw on a whim, along with her elbow. She would get it looked at properly at the end of the night, but for now, she would just have to do with numbing the pain.

 _Get lost!_ Korra shouted mentally, forcing Vaatu into an imaginary bottle inside of her head, and slamming the cork down on top. Finally, he was locked away, at least for the time being. Korra breathed a sigh of relief, as she felt his struggle end, and gazed meekly around the city. Her vision was a little fuzzy, but other than that, she was fine.

Korra wasn’t sure how he had suddenly gained such a foothold on her mental wellbeing, but the young Avatar reckoned that she had a pretty good idea. When she had taken Bolin’s bending away, she felt no remorse nor regret. But one thing she had felt was any bond that they had previously shared was gone completely. She hadn’t had any proper friends her age growing up in the South Pole, so when Bolin had accepted her immediately, he became her best friend. Later, he shared that with Asami, until Korra started dating her, so subconsciously, he was her best friend, again. That showed how little of a social life she had, not seeing her best friend in nearly two years.

 _I’m the Avatar and a mother, I have more important things_ , Korra told herself. Then, naturally, her mind went to the fourth person in her old friend group. _Dirty bastard_! She cursed mentally. _The next time I get my hands on him, I’m going to-_

“KORRA!” a certain voice bellowed from directly underneath her.

Korra’s entire body froze as she recognised that voice instantly. She suddenly became 110% aware of her surroundings, goosebumps rippling down her skin. She had spent the last five months resenting the owner of that voice to the point where she had decided that she was going to end his life once they reunited. But now, she felt her body go rigid, despite the rage that bubbled up inside of her.

She felt Vaatu trying to creep out of his bottle, but Korra couldn’t afford to dedicate herself to completely preventing another mental breakdown, so she left it be for the minute. She swivelled in the air, and there he was. Korra lowered herself down to the ground to face him, regarding the father of her daughter with a loathing look.

He wasn’t really any different from how she remembered him the last time, except he was a lot cleaner in general now. He didn’t have any facial hair, and he didn’t smell like vodka and piss like the last time. His hair was swept to the side neatly, and his posture was tall and strong. He had a black jacket, black trousers and brown shoes on. His face was red, presumably from running. She could see why an impressionable teenager like she used to be might have fallen for him, but she knew the truth behind his face. A fresh apple, but rotten at the core.

Mako was slightly in awe of Korra as she lowered herself down, the heat emanating from her flames twice as hot as Shinoda’s had felt. She was wearing the water-tribe getup that she’d always worn before, but he knew instantly that she’d never been this big. Her biceps bulged, matched only by the side of her shoulders. Korra regarded him with a look that conveyed numerous emotions, all of them negative.

But when he saw the tattoo of an eye with lines wiggling out of it peering into his soul, Mako genuinely felt like taking a step back. However, he remembered all the reasons why he had insisted on coming to her, so he swallowed his fears with a large gulp. Suddenly, his mouth felt dry as he realised that the moment he had been waiting for since he had stumbled out of the Tree of Time had finally arrived. He licked his lips nervously.

“You!” Korra snarled. She wanted to blow him up so badly, but first of all, she had a bunch of questions. His inevitable demise could wait a little longer, as a dead man couldn’t answer her questions. There was no way he was escaping now anyway: she wouldn’t dare let that happen.

**Note: Korra and Mako are located close to the rear part of Omashu, the opposite end to where the entrance to the city in ATLA is.**


	48. Former Lovers

“You!” Korra snarled.

“Hey, Korra,” Mako greeted, regarding her with mixed feelings. He decided to be humble for the minute, as he truly had no right to talk down to Korra after what had happened back at the South Pole.

“Why are you here?” she demanded, clenching her fists together.

“That’s a good question,” Mako muttered, then took a deep breath before continuing. “I'm here with Bolin. You’ve already met him, and I know what you did.”

“I've got nothing personal against him,” Korra stated, “but you, you don’t even have a shred of good credit right now! I’d like to kill you, and have wanted to ever since I fully understood what your words back then meant!”

“I’m so, so, sorry for that, Korra,” Mako told her, looking her straight in the eyes, pouring his heart into every word. “But can we please get the other problem out of the way first before we talk about Kalla?”

“Don’t you dare utter her name with your filthy mouth!” Korra ordered, although deep down, she was startled. The young Avatar hadn’t even once considered the possibility of Mako apologising to her for anything ever since the meditation to unlock her combustion bending with Azula.

“I need to explain the circumstances of why we’re here,” Mako said. “Taking away anybody’s bending isn’t something you should do just as it comes to your mind. Did Bolin tell you anything?”

“I gave him tons of chances!” Korra replied, but her interest was spiked. She was very curious as to how Bolin could turn into someone so angry. She decided to hear Mako out. “But fine, it is strange why he would turn so dark. Unlike _you_!”

“This isn’t Bolin’s fault,” Mako began, ignoring the comment. “It all started about a year ago, when we moved to Ba Sing Sae, because Bolin and three of his close friends, wanted to start up a lavabending school there. He met them all in his first classes in Zaofu. They were all great guys, good people. Their names were Nel, Mo and Ling, Ling being Bolin’s best friend by the time I arrived.”

“He probably stopped talking to you after what happened at the South Pole,” Korra interjected snidely.

“Actually, it was something entirely different,” Mako revealed, raising an eyebrow from Korra. “Remember the drug operation with the Red Monsoon and the Agni Kai’s? Remember how I killed Kenichi Shinoda?”

“The Red Monsoon and the Agni Kai’s…” Korra muttered, racking her brain, then she suddenly remembered the raid which ultimately led to her fleeing Republic City. It seemed like a lifetime ago, given everything that had happened in the meantime. “Yeah, I do! That cunt Hazukk framed me as the villain!”

“Hazukk ran away, I caught him red-handed dealing with the Triple Threats on a different case later,” Mako told her.

“I knew he had something to do with the Triple Threats!” Korra stated, although a tiny smirk broke her constant scowl, just for a second, as she cracked her knuckles. “That just gives me more of a licence to beat his head in when I eventually find him.”

“Anyway,” Mako continued, “Bolin and I had a really bad fight afterwards in the hospital. Bolin said that I was no better than Shinoda for killing in revenge, and we didn’t talk again for the best part of the next year.”

“Even your own brother could see what a despicable man you are!” Korra jibed.

“I know,” Mako agreed, his shoulders slumping in shame. Inside Korra’s head, this really rocked her. She’d imagined him laughing about all of the bad things he’d done in the scenarios she made up in her head, yet here he was, accepting how he was guilty. Korra brushed it off as an act to get on her good side, still itching to blast his body apart.

“We made up in Zaofu,” Mako went on, “and I went to Ba Sing Sae to help decriminalise lavabending officially there. During that time, I stayed with them, as I had nowhere else to go with my life. The others were all fine with me as their roommate, and for the next eleven months, their classes grew at an astounding rate, so much so, that they were taking in over 1400 students a week. Everything was looking up for Bolin, as well as his friends. But then, Omashu declared war.”

Korra looked at Mako tensely, not liking where the story was going. She vaguely remembered what Bolin had shouted at her when he gave a reason for not giving in.

“There were eighty students in the class one evening, about a month ago,” Mako went on, nearly jumbling his words up. This part was very hard for him to recall willingly. “It got bombed, killing fifteen children. I was knocked out, but was saved by Bolin, Nel and Ling. From what I heard, it was a bitter, vicious fight. Nel got his oesophagus pierced, and was cut open in too many places to count. He was in intensive care when we left. Then, during the fight, Ling was… Ling was…” Mako took a deep breath, then counted to three, before speaking: “Ling was murdered too, stabbed right in the back.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Korra said, toning down her boldness a little. She felt a lot of sympathy for Bolin's loss. “Is that why you two went to war?”

“I never wanted to go to war,” Mako told her, getting his breathing back under control. “Never. But Bolin became driven by hate and a desire for revenge. He couldn’t let Ling’s death just slide. I begged him not to go, but he wouldn’t listen. I swore that I wouldn’t abandon another family member, so I came with him. We got here three days ago.

“That’s incredibly unfortunate,” Korra admitted. “But why are you telling me this? You’re deluded if you think that I have any nostalgia to the old Team Avatar!”

“I’m asking you to give Bolin his bending back, firstly,” Mako pleaded. “It’s his life, you know it is.”

“Absolutely not!” Korra stated definitively, not even a second of hesitation with her answer. “He had his chances, and turned them all down. If I’m going to stop this war, I can’t go back on my punishments just because it made the person feel bad!” She jabbed a finger at him. “Who are you to go asking me for favours, anyway?! You rejected our daughter back at the South Pole!”

“I know,” Mako said solemnly. “But can we please talk about Bolin's-“

“He tried his hardest to kill me!” Korra interrupted. “If he wants it back so bad, maybe he can come to me in a year, and I’ll see how he’s changed. That’s it, that’s my final decision. You’re not asking a favour from a friend, Mako!”

Mako went quiet for a few moments, then gave in with a sigh. He hadn’t gotten his hopes up too high beforehand, as he had doubted that Korra would have a sudden change of heart. He was still very angry at what she’d done to his brother – the uncle of her child – but her mistake paled in comparison to all of his.

“Lost your guts?” Korra asked, trying to get a reaction out of him. “Because I can assure you, you lost them all long ago.”

 _Kill… him_ …, Vaatu whispered in Korra’s head, trying to force his way back out.

 _Later,_ Korra responded _. I want to see him grovel for forgiveness before I end his life_. Although Korra couldn’t put it into words, what she really wanted was the satisfaction of seeing Mako humbled before her, feeling regret for his actions.

“Do you really want to kill me?” Mako asked sadly, as if he could hear their conversation, although that was impossible.

“I might not,” Korra answered, “depending on how this conversation goes.” That was a lie.

“I should start,” Mako vouched. “I’m the one in the wrong.” In his head, he remembered how Ling had said that if Korra really wanted to kill him, then she wasn’t fit to take care of Kalla, but he kept that to himself. She was deservedly angry: This was the first time they’d spoke since he had pretty much disowned their child.

“Sure,” Korra allowed, acting nonchalant, although secretly, she was unsettled. She hadn’t expected this response from him at all. Korra bore holes into his head with her glare.

“Please let me finish until you make your final decision,” Mako prefaced, shifting uncomfortably from her look.

“I’m waiting,” Korra told him, rapping her fingers.

“Thank you. I’ll guess I’ll start way back with Hazukk,” Mako began. “When you fled, I didn’t know about anything about Kalla. I was still a commander back then, and Hazukk was pretending to be my friend. But after he got famous off of you, he ditched me, as he didn’t need me to make connections any more. One day, I went out on a walk with him, on the orders of Beifong to get information, with the pretext of socialising being what I told him. But we didn’t get off to a great start, and things got pretty heated. He made fun of me, and I reacted poorly. We fought, but he beat me, leaving me alone in the pissing rain.”

“Hazukk beat you?” Korra asked, surprised. Her only memories of Hazukk were him getting beaten the shit out of, on the raid. She hated Mako with a passion, but she knew that he was nothing less than a capable fighter.

“He had me riled up,” Mako told her, his words coming out thick and fast. “After that, when I woke up, he was long gone. I thought that was the last we would see of each other, but I was wrong.

“Later that night, I managed to listen in on a couple of Triple Threats that had just robbed a bank,” he went on. “I followed one of them on the way home, and fought them. I got the details of a meeting with a mysterious client at the docks, so I went to the docks, early the same morning.”

“Let me guess,” Korra interjected. “Hazukk was the client.”

“Yep,” Mako answered. “I can’t remember the exact reason why at the time, but I confronted them, instead of bringing the information back to the station to analyse. But I got electrocuted, and was at their mercy. Hazukk was confident that he’d left no trace behind, and let me live, just so that he could rub it in that he was better than me, to get his revenge for replacing him so quickly in probending, all those years ago. He didn’t break his leg, by the way.”

“Where is he now?!” Korra demanded.

“He ran off,” Mako said. He noticed a subtle change in Korra’s demeanour. When she was a teenager, she had been hot-headed, and stubborn. After she came back to face Kuivera, she was a lot more mature and level-headed. 

But now, she was mature and… aggressive. Not hot-headed, where she would be willing to beat someone up to get her point across. But someone who wouldn’t have any qualms about how badly they hurt someone as long as they had a reason. Or maybe she was just giving off that vibe to him specifically. “I had no proof, and the case was dropped within a week. After that, my mental health really went to shit.”

“How so?” Korra asked, expressing no sympathy.

“Although I didn’t want to admit it,” Mako explained, not taking any offense, “Hazukk was my only friend by that point, so when he betrayed me, I was left with no friends. No-one would come over when I invited them for drinks, so I’d just get drunk on my own. It got me really, really down, so I’d be drinking four nights a week to avoid the pain. I buried myself in work otherwise, trying to act like I was neglecting a social life for the sake of being professional, but in fact, it just messed up my work life. My reputation fell and fell, but I grew a huge ego, to make people think that my life was great. In reality though, I wanted to kill myself.”

“You should have!” Korra snarled. She didn’t know where the insult had come from, as she hadn’t been planning it, but deep down, she revelled in the look of hurt that appeared on Mako’s face. Her eyes were drooping a bit, but she just put it down to the exhaustion of dealing with Vaatu.

“Maybe,” Mako agreed, unable to hide how deeply that struck a chord. He could feel his voice beginning to get higher as he became upset, but took his time to calm down. When he felt okay again, he continued:

“Anyway, I was forced along by Beifong to the South Pole. I was in a shitty state by that point, both on the inside and outside. You were found, as we both know, and I committed an unforgivable sin, by… by not accepting Kalla.” Mako looked Korra straight in the eyes. “I regret what I did there every morning I wake up, and every night I go to sleep. I know that’s it’s incredibly high and mighty to come before you now, when you have all the authority, and pour out my life like this.”

“It is,” Korra agreed, putting her only good hand on her hip. “I can’t even begin to find words to describe how much it revolts me.” A question came to her mind. “But why have you come back now? You were extremely definite when you told me that Kalla wasn’t your daughter.”

“I would be the same if I were you,” Mako told her. “But I absolutely know now that I am the father. I got fired from my job by Beifong for a number of stupid things, all of which were all my fault. I wandered aimlessly around Republic City, and stumbled upon the spirit portal. You had reopened it by then, and an old homeless man started talking to me. He told me how the Tree of Time remembers all, and I tried it out. I suddenly remembered everything when I meditated in there, and after that, I developed a resolve of steel to make up with everyone I had wronged, and be a part of Kalla’s life. Please listen to my next few words carefully.

“Why should I?” Korra posed the question. “What do I possibly owe to you?”

“Nothing,” Mako admitted with a heavy heart.

“How about this, then?” Korra said. She looked carelessly to the sky, as if it had just crossed her mind. “If I don’t accept your apology tonight, then you will never come back or interfere with Kalla’s life again. Ever.”

Mako was taken aback by this suggestion, gasping as soon as Korra proposed it. This was the exact last thing he wanted to do. But the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a decent idea. The odds were hugely stacked against him, but…

After a minute of hard thinking, Mako looked up at Korra: “I’ve come to my decision, Korra,” he announced, “and this is my final answer. I can’t accept that offer. Even if you don’t accept me tonight, which is completely fine, I know that I won’t be able to just forget about Kalla like that. So, I’m going to ask you of one final favour, even if it’s something I really don’t deserve. Just hear my apology out tonight, and you can take as long as you want to consider it. Days, weeks, months, however long you need.”

Korra blinked, astounded how Mako had turned that on her. She’d only been playing with him, to see the look on his face when she would tell him 'no' after a seemingly long period of consideration. She had wanted to let him know a little of the anguish that she had felt when he rejected Kalla back at the South Pole. But he had just unwittingly walked around her assumptions, kicking at the foundations of her view of him. She decided that it was at least worth hearing:

“Go on,” Korra allowed, still furious.

“Thank you,” Mako told Korra. He proceeded to get onto his knees and bow his head down, touching the ground with his forehead.

“You are her mother, and the one who has always cared for Kalla,” Mako began. “I was a selfish prick, who didn’t even bother to consider your claim. I grew up without parents ever since I was eight, so I should know of all people what it’s like not to have parental love. The unconditional love that you have always bestowed upon Kalla. I’ve spent the last year glued to every report of your sightings, but I haven’t been able to find you. Not once have I ever wavered in my belief of what I’m about to tell you.

“I am so desperately sorry!” Mako stated, his voice cracking u. “From the bottom of my heart, it gets harder and harder every day to know that there is a very real chance that I may never see Kalla again! I know the struggles of growing up dirt poor, and I would never willingly let my own family go through that, when I’m capable of protecting her! As the Avatar, the chances that you will die young are stupidly high. If I don’t get your blessing, I would never feel entirely comfortable taking care of Kalla in such an undesirable scenario.” 

Korra’s breath caught in her throat as she noticed that Mako had started crying. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever witnessed that before, even in all the time that they’d spent together as a couple, or even just as friends.

“I am sorry beyond words!” Mako wailed, looking up at Korra’s blue pupils, while still kneeling down. Tears streamed freely out of his own amber ones. “So I am begging to please let me back into Kalla’s life! If you can overlook me on this one time, I promise that something like this will never happen again!” Mako broke down even more, sobbing endlessly into the ground. Korra just stood there, silent.

She was rattled. Korra had never, not even in a million years, expected something as heartfelt as this from Mako. She had always imagined him, since she had unlocked the power to combust bend, as a despicable man. Because that honestly was the type that rejected their own children. Korra had met many vile men from all walks of life, many of whom she had placed in the rock bottom category of how she viewed people. Up until recently, Mako had been rooted to the evillest part of that category, truly the scum of the earth, in her opinion. But now, he was slowly being pulled out of those murky depths. Korra even felt herself relen-

 _Don’t listen to him!_ Vaatu murmured suddenly, breaking her chain of thought _. They are all lies. Humans love to lie to get themselves out of trouble, no matter the detriment of others._

 _Why should I listen to you?_ Korra asked the spirit who was over a million years old. _You’ve never tried to help me, you were desperately trying to take control just five minutes ago!_

 _Isn’t it a bit convenient that as soon as he learns that his brother’s bending has been taken away, he comes to you, after a year’s absence?_ Vaatu posed the question _._

 _He couldn’t have known where I was!_ Korra responded, while Mako’s tears slowly dried up. He looked at her, shivering, awaiting her verdict.

 _Very well then,_ Vaatu accepted _. Then why is he in the middle of a foreign war?_

 _He wants to protect Bolin!_ Korra countered, but then doubts started to creep in. Joining a war just to protect your brother seemed very extreme, even for a pair as tight as them. Mako hadn’t come with Bolin to all the war-torn parts of the Earth Empire, when there were riots everywhere after the Earth Queen’s murder.

 _Exactly,_ Vaatu’s voice echoed. _He is only lying for the sake of a deeper purpose. Perhaps one that he doesn’t want you to know?_

 _I can sense for his heartbeat with earthbending,_ Korra thought suddenly. _I wasn’t paying attention while he spoke just there, but all he has to do is repeat it, and I’ll be able to tell if he’s lying or not._

 _He worked undercover, didn’t he?_ Vaatu said. Korra didn’t know how Vaatu knew that fact, but ignored it _. Lying is probably a second nature to him. You are very rusty at your earthbending too, to add to the fact that you were never very good at sensing heartbeats in the first place._

 _What would he want, then?_ Korra demanded. She was teetering on the edge of accepting or declining Mako, incredibly torn with the decision.

 _Revenge,_ Vaatu answered simply _. He wants revenge for his brother’s loss of bending. It doesn’t matter how long it would take to catch you off guard, he will be prepared to avenge the only family in his life that he cares about. The first chance you let your guard down, he will stab you in the back._

Mako took deep breaths to calm himself as he prayed that Korra would accept his apology. He had poured every last piece of affection he could into it, and now just had to hope that Korra would forgive him. He peered meekly at her, while she stood there pensively. He really hoped that they could be friends again.

 _Why?_ Korra asked Vaatu _. Why does it matter to you? For all I know, you could be lying to me!_

 _It’s in my personal interests to keep you alive,_ Vaatu told her _. He does not matter to me._

 _So this is all for your benefit, then?_ she asked. _You’re just trying to wait for the perfect moment to take control yourself!_

 _I am simply an outlet of your true feelings,_ Vaatu told Korra _. The ones that you stifle to fit in with your view of an acceptable being to other humans. I am not the tide that forces the ship to change direction. While you are behind the wheel, I am the mast that pushes you on, that keeps you moving. Without me, you couldn’t have brought yourself to kill Azula. You desperately wanted to make her pay for killing that girl, Azami. I let you do so._

Korra's opinion of Mako, which had been slowly lifting itself out of its degenerate category, was hauled back down, and to add to that, Korra impaled it there, keeping it in place permanently. She felt Vaatu’s influence dripping into her mind, untying the string of guilt, and tightening the string of hate. The string that had been elongated by Mako’s betrayal to their daughter. Korra didn’t quite go as far as going into the Avatar State, but the imaginary cork on Vaatu’s bottle loosened considerably. She snapped back into reality, to Mako eagerly awaiting her verdict.

“I-“ she started.

 _Please_ , Mako thought, getting his hopes up. His entire body tingled with anticipation.

“-am going to kill you!” Korra finished, and glared at her former lover, now the person she hated most in the world.


	49. The Inevitable - Part 1

“Wha…?” Mako asked, his eyes widening. He watched Korra jump into the air, and swing her extended leg in a circle three times. Three thick, blunt slices of air flew at the firebender. He cried out as he was sent flying backwards, all of them connecting. Mako landed awkwardly as Korra kicked another four slices of air at him.

 _Use my power!_ Vaatu urged Korra, spurring her on _. Go into the Avatar State!_

 _I need to finish this myself,_ Korra replied as Mako scrambled out of the way _. There are some things you can’t leave to others._

 _Then use combustion bending,_ he told her _. You want to kill him, don’t you?_

 _I’m too dizzy for that right now,_ Korra responde _d. Besides, I don’t want to use that unless I have to, it’s a trump card_.

“Korra, what are you doing?!” Mako demanded, holding his hands out in confusion. His heart was pounding inside his chest, his senses on edge. Why did she just attack me so suddenly?

“What I’ve been planning to do for quite some time now!” Korra shouted, pointing her index and middle fingers out while she extended her only good arm. She unleashed a blue flamethrower, intent on incinerating Mako.

“What’s the issue?!” Mako cried, then thrust both his fists forward. Twin flamethrowers roared out of his knuckles and clashed with Korra’s at the mid-way point in between them, lighting up the area with a dazzling display of pyrotechnics. Mako was forced to pour all his concentration into it, but to his surprise, Korra’s blue flamethrower was slowly mowing down both of his. He tried put more juice into his, but as her sizzling blue flames approached, Mako realised that he wasn’t going to beat her with brawn. He spun away from Korra’s blue flamethrower, just as it threatened to overpower him, into a fighting stance.

“What’s the issue?!” he repeated. “If you want me gone, I’ll leave, but why are you attacking me?!”

“You’re a dirty liar!” Korra yelled, dragging some water out of a drain, and starting to twirl it in a loop around her body. “You’ll never be a threat to Kalla again!”

“What do mean ‘a threat’?” Mako asked, even more confused. “I know that I’ve been a shitty father, but I’d never, ever lay hands on her in that way!”

“I know that you just want to stab me in the back for taking Bolin’s bending!” Korra retorted. “I’m not a fool, Mako!”

“How could I decide to do that in just half an hour?” Mako questioned, starting to get annoyed. Korra had every right to be angry, but now she was getting delusional.

“You didn’t take long to reject Kalla!” Korra reminded him, and started jabbing at the water that was circling around her body. Mako instinctively dived into an alley as dozens of icicles started flying towards him, the edges razor-sharp. Mako waited for an opening, but for the next fifteen seconds, Korra didn’t let up, hoping to catch him when he peeked out.

Then, the barrage of icicles stopped. Mako took a short breather, then replied:

“I just apologised for that!” he shouted. He waited for Korra’s response, but nothing came. After about ten seconds of nail-biting silence, Mako decided to peek around, in case she had moved.

A stream of water smacked him in the mouth, rushing around to fill the whole alley, and Mako was helpless to do anything about it. He spluttered as water rushed down his lungs, carrying him down the alley and out over the ledge that it led to. He flailed helplessly in the air for a few moments, having no sense of space or time while his eyes were shut and he was in the middle of Korra’s river. 

Then, pain ripped him back into the real world as he hit his hip badly on some kind of rock. The water washed off of him, and Mako’s eyes burst open. He coughed violently, then threw up a lot of the drain water that had entered down his throat. He stayed there for a few seconds vomiting, on his hands and knees, before looking around weakly.

Mako was in one of the chutes that Omashu sent their mail down using earthbending. Twenty metres below him, water lay splayed out on the ground. 

_I’d be dead if it weren’t for this passageway_ , Mako thought. He saw Korra standing at the ledge where he had been washed off, fuming. Without a word, she hurled a volley of water at him.

“Stop it!” Mako urged as he started sprinting down the passageway, sending fireballs to cancel out the volleys of water that she sent after him. Korra didn’t answer, frustrated that the job wasn’t already done, and flew onto the passageway behind him. She bellowed blue fire, which closed the small gap in between them that Mako had created very quickly. The former commander saw no way of out-running it, and jumped off the passageway, just about avoiding her assault.

Mako thrust his fists downward, creating out as much fire as he possibly could to avoid breaking any bones. He managed to slow his descent considerably, and rolled as he landed hard on a roof. Mako kept on sprinting, his legs already feeling heavy due to the running he had done just to get up to Korra. Omashu was very steep, and he felt the effects of that now. He leapt across to another rooftop, and glanced back at Korra.

Mako didn’t waste long looking at her, as he bounced to a different roof to evade the bolt of lightning that tried to smite him. He jumped away from three more, wondering why she hadn’t used combustion bending yet, but then teetered dangerously as he nearly jumped off an edge. Mako spun around, realising that there was no time to dodge this next one, and pointed his fingers at the oncoming bolt. It zapped through his body, but didn’t cause any damage as he gritted his teeth. 

Mako knew that he couldn’t just keep running while she tried to kill him without retaliation forever, so he redirected it at the cart passageway that Korra was still standing in. Korra flew out of harm’s way easily, and hovered onto one of the blown-up rooftops, breathing a little heavily as it was blown up.

“Why are you destroying peoples’ homes, Korra!?” Mako demanded, noticing the damage her short flurry of attacks had already caused. “This has nothing to do with them!”

“I’m just trying to get you,” Korra growled, and was about to follow her response up with another witty comment when she suddenly clutched her head, and started to moan. Mako could’ve this opportunity to strike her down, but didn’t, and waited patiently for her to recover. When her headache passed, he continued;

“I’m willing to forget that this ever happened, Korra,” Mako told her, crossing his arms. “If you call it quits now, we can leave here on good terms. That’s a promise.”

“You’re only saying that because I have you on the ropes,” Korra accused him, baring her teeth.

“I could’ve killed you just there,” Mako stated, ready to spring into action at any moment. He was pissed off now, his sorry mood from a few minutes ago gone. “But I let you recover so that we could talk. I don’t want to fight, Korra, but if you keep this up, I won’t hold back.”

 _Don’t let his poison seep into your mind_ , Vaatu urged as his energy begged to be let loose.

 _I know_ , Korra replied, but swallowed the Avatar State back down, almost fighting two battles at once.

“Well?” Mako asked.

“No!” Korra told him.

 _Fuck’s sake_! Mako cursed mentally, and jumped off the roof onto the street, using flamethrowers to slow his descent once again. They consumed a lot of energy, and Mako wasn’t nearly as talented at using them as Korra, but he wasn’t too shabby, either. Korra jumped off with him, landing flawlessly without a second thought. Mako started running away, not fancying a close-quarters fight with someone who could bloodbend, but jerked his head around when he heard rocks being ripped out of the ground.

Korra kicked five medium sized chunks of earth at Mako. While the firebender struggled to dodge them, resorting to blowing one up just before it hit his face, she hit him with another combo. Korra kicked blue fire at him with both of her feet, and then sent three straight fire jabs after those, adding a sneaky air-punch in with the last fire-jab. Mako scrambled to wave and part the onrushing flame, not seeing the air-punch in time. He flew back a few metres and was sent rolling as it hit him, but apart from that, the damage wasn’t too bad.

 _She’s really trying to kill me_ , Mako admitted with a heavy heart, then groggily pushed himself up.

“This is your last chance, Korra!” Mako offered. “Stop this now, and we can wake up tomorrow with a clean slate of each other! Otherwise, I won’t hold back!”

“You’re on the ropes!” Korra repeated. “I’m going to protect Kalla, no matter what lengths I have to go to!”

“What has gotten into you?” Mako demanded. He was furious with her.

“I’m not so gullible anymore!” she declared, with a forced smile, to convey confidence. “Your lies won’t work on me!”

 _She’s not fit to take care of Kalla,_ Mako realised. _I don’t know what’s happened to her, but I can’t let someone like this be responsible for the upbringing of my daughter_.

Mako might have said something else, but then, Korra followed up her declaration by shoving her hand diagonally into the ground. A line of lava started spitting its way towards Mako, glowing menacingly. Mako jumped out of the way by fire-running across the face of the houses that lined each side of him. The windows were all boarded up, and all the doors bolted shut too, probably, so the inhabitants must have been trembling in fear at the commotion outside.

Korra kicked and punched seven blue fireballs at Mako, her good arm flopping around uselessly, but Mako just dove under them all, hearing them scorch against the houses. Korra punched a whirlwind at Mako, who only had half the street to maneuverer due to the line of lava splitting it in two. Mako faced the attack, brought his fist back and powered it at the whirlwind, a massive fireball coming out of his knuckles. It fired into the whirlwind, and they spun each other out harmlessly.

 _I’m going to have to be very careful with my attacks_ , Mako thought, and started running backwards. _If I want to win, heck, if I want to get out alive, I can’t waste a drop of energy_. 

Mako suddenly turned on his heel, diving into yet another alleyway. _They waste so much space with all these alleys_. Korra flew right after him, and skidded to a halt outside of it. She cooled the lava while she was at it, seeing no point to just letting it sit there.

Korra was caught off guard as Mako jumped out of the shadows, throwing a fire-hook. He followed this up with a low fire-kick to her heels, then finished the combo with a fire whip bearing down from above on her. Korra stumbled backwards as she barely managed to deal with all of these, as she only had one arm to defend herself with. She had to take the fire whip on her forearm to avoid have it hit her head. Mako saw his opportunity, and blasted a quick fire-backhand at Korra, who was helpless to do anything as it smashed into her chest. She started to fall over.

On her way down, Korra swept her leg wildly at Mako. A line of air made for Mako’s shins, but he easily managed to jump over it, tucking his knees into his chest. He landed on one foot, extending his other to head-height. He swung his outstretched foot down, a fire-kick erupting out of his heel, which arrowed for Korra. 

Korra landed painfully, her broken arm stinging particularly badly. Luckily though, as she saw the fire-kick approaching rapidly, Korra instinctively banged her heel against the ground. A block of earth rose up and exploded with the impact of the fire, but protected Korra.

 _He’s not done yet!_ Vaatu warned as Mako prepared another fire-backhand, bringing his fist back as far as he could for maximum damage.

 _I know_ , Korra responded, and pointed her legs up in the air, then used them to swing into a standing position. She used her momentum to punch the ground, erecting a wall. But instead of being in front of Korra, it raised up just in front of Mako, as the first embers started to spark from his knuckles.

 _Shit_! Mako thought, cursing his carelessness with such a big build-up to his attack. He couldn’t stop as the embers turned into roaring flames, and connected with the wall.

Korra watched as the wall she had created exploded into dust and hundreds of small pebbles with a boom. Mako was thrown back like a ragdoll, crashing into a couple of bins. His hip, which he had hit on the cart passageway earlier and suspected to be chipped, flared up. Mako blinked furiously as he tried to locate Korra through the dust cloud. The explosion had temporarily blinded him, and now, whenever he closed his eyes, he just saw red. Through the haze, he swore that he saw Korra’s figure walking through. He tried to get up, but all the aches and pains forced him back down.

 _How long are you going to play, Korra_? Vaatu demanded. _He’s launched one real attack and landed you on your backside. Even if he’s hurt now, there’s definitely a possibility that he could land a sucker-punch on you._

 _You’re right_ , Korra admitted, and cleared her foremost thoughts out of her head. She inhaled deeply, centring all her rage on the man just up ahead, his features covered by the cloud of dust that hung in the air between them. She tensed her body up, and glared at where Mako was lying. A bullet of compressed fire shot out of her the tattoo on her forehead.

Mako snapped back into the battle as he saw a small, yellow bullet of compressed fire zoom through the cloud of dust, parting it. He began to move, but then realised that he wouldn’t be able to dodge this attack. The firebender also knew instantly that he wouldn’t have any attacks nearly powerful enough to equal Korra’s assault.

 _Is this it_? Mako thought, as he stared down the barrel of the gun. A deer caught in the headlights.

Pain sparked up in Korra’s elbow as she shot her bullet at Mako. She exhaled sharply, and her bullet exploded. It illuminated the entire alley as the flames erupted just before the bullet reached Mako. Korra clutched at her swollen elbow, then tugged her hand away as the contact made the pain worse. She fell to one knee, feeling faint again. Korra was exhausted mentally, and had forgotten to be prepared for any physical pain potentially interrupting the process.

Mako bounced up, not wanting to wait around for Korra’s second shot. His clothes were torn in several places, and he had a bad burn on his entire good hand from the first explosion, not to mention countless other injuries, but he started jogging away as fast as he could, limping quite badly. Mako reckoned that he would be okay for this fight with his hip, but after that, would definitely need to get it looked at.

Only two things were keeping him going at the minute, one being the rush of adrenaline from such an intense fight like this. The other was the light at the end of the tunnel – the tunnel being this fight and the light being Kalla. _If I can somehow manage to survive this,_ he thought _, the reward will be worth a lifetime of injuries!_

 _He’s getting away_! Vaatu commented as Mako turned the opposite end of the alley, onto another untouched street.

 _Will you ever shut up for one second_? Korra jibed, standing up. She waved both the dust clouds away with a gust of air, then grunted. Two rockets roared out of her feet, and Korra sped forward, able to ignore the pain in her broken arm as it hung behind her limply.

For the next three minutes, Mako hobbled away from Korra as she combustion bent recklessly after him, tearing up the city. The general aches gradually subsided as time wore on, but Mako felt the pain in his hip just getting worse and worse. He could only try and evade Korra, who was seemingly tiring, but not nearly enough for Mako to try and confront her. 

It was a game of cat-and-mouse taken to the extreme, but eventually, Mako’s luck ran out. He had been going downhill the entire time, as uphill was too much for his leg to support. MakoMako burst out from the endless alleys that wove through Omashu, holding his hip. He doubted that it was chipped by now, as it was still supporting his weight to a degree, but it was definitely messed up. Mako turned left, another bullet exploding right where he had been two seconds before. 

Mako ran to the end of the street, which was the great wall, but to his horror, there was no more alleys for him to run through. He spun to see Korra burst out of the alleyway that he had just come through, panting hard. Her efforts with the bullets had gotten quite lazy, but she couldn’t possibly miss now.

“You rat!” Korra shouted, a malevolent grin appearing on her face. She pointed at him with her only good hand. “It’s time to meet your maker!”

“Korra, stop this madness!” Mako urged desperately, backed up against the great wall. Korra stood thirty metres away from him, preparing herself for one big last blast. “You’re not that type of person!”

“I’m the Avatar!” she responded. “Sometimes, you have to pull out the weed, rather than chop the top off.” Although Korra seemed to be doing okay, on the inside, she was having a mental breakdown. So much hate and negativity was clouding Korra’s thinking that she could only focus on the task at hand. Vaatu helped her through the chase, giving her clear instructions to follow. 

Korra knew that him guiding her, and the fact that she was such a naturally talented bender as the Avatar, were the only things that had kept her from blowing herself up. Korra gritted her teeth, mustering all her remaining energy, and glared at Mako. She wouldn’t be able to produce proper explosions with bullets of combustion bending after this, at least not for a day.

Korra pinpointed all of her hate of Mako, centring it on the terrified man, who was glued to the wall. She took one last deep breath in through her nostrils, opening her third eye. She tensed her body up, ignoring any niggles. Then, she severed the rope binding her hate to her mind, letting it blitz at Mako. The bullet travelled sluggishly, due to all the combustion bending she’d already done today, but was still rapid. All of Korra’s surroundings became blurry as she focused on her target. Just before it reached the wall, she exhaled sharply.

A giant explosion occurred, shattering all the nearby windows and lighting up the surrounding area. A sizeable hole, enough to fit three mechasuits in, was blasted straight through the wall, opening up to the drop below. Korra dropped to one knee as she very nearly collapsed, struggling to stay conscious. She squinted at the hole, which had produced a huge dust cloud. There was no sign of Mako, as there shouldn’t have been. Maybe his remains were falling down the canyon right now, but otherwise… she’d blasted him off the face of the earth.

Mako was dead.

“I’ve done it!” Korra declared out loud, raising a fist triumphantly. “I’ve done it! I’ve done it! That bastard is no more!”

She nearly fell unconscious, but managed to keep one eye open. Her thoughts were still jumbled, and the fact that he was dead didn’t set in right away. That was okay. When her dad had been thrown off of a cliff by Zaheer, she’d never properly registered that he had been dead, and she’d seen him alive just a few hours later, so it would maybe take a day or two. Thinking of her dad led to thinking about Kalla.

 _I can’t wait to see her again!_ Korra thought, her heart fluttering. _Now that I’ve finally gotten rid of-_

 _Above you, Korra_! Vaatu interrupted, causing the Avatar to jerk her head up. A fireball was dropping down towards her from the sky. Korra jumped out of the way, safely watching it crash onto the ground beside her. She glanced at where the fireball had come from, and growled, her blood beginning to boil once again.

Mako was coming in towards her from above, fast too. He was using his flamethrowers as proper rockets, although he was being very wasteful with his energy. Korra tried to send another combustion bending bullet forwards him, but grimaced as she nearly blacked out. That last effort had really taken a lot of out of her, and she couldn’t fire again right away.

Mako landed roughly, right behind Korra, and started throwing punches, kicks and elbows at her without restraint. There was no fire in these attacks, but Korra still had difficulty defending herself as he landed the odd hook to her liver, the knee to her inner thigh. Korra could only defend herself, having one arm, and Mako batted away any attempt of hers to bend at him.

Mako forced Korra to back away, towards the gaping hole in the wall. He had gone flat out to fly like that and avoid getting blown into another dimension. He needed a minute to re-gather his strength, and figured Korra was tired too. He was really motivated to fight now, the pain in his hip suddenly not too bad. In the distance, he heard soldiers shouting as they all rushed to see what had happened at their precious wall.

 _Shit,_ Mako thought _. These guys will kill me if they get the chance. I’m lucky to have survived this fight so far, but if they see me, I’ve got no chance._

Mako had Korra twenty metres from the hole right now, and she was retreating all the time. He figured that he could maybe get her to fall off the edge, and that the Avatar State could save her from dying. But as he tried to think of a plan, Korra managed to get half a metre in between them. She brought her good hand back, her palm open. Mako knew that she was going to try and airbend him away, which would result in the same game of cat-and-mouse if he let up for a moment. So instead of trying dodge her attack, he grabbed her wrist and pressed Korra’s palm against her own stomach.

 _Fuck_! Korra thought as Mako redirected her own attack back at her. She belted backwards to just three metres in front of the drop below, tumbling most of the way. She staggered back onto her feet to see Mako sprinting towards her. Korra was too slow to attack him first, so she just held her hand out as he clapped a tunnel of fire towards her, the same move she had used against Bolin earlier.

Mako heard the Omashu soldiers come onto the street and spot him. He realised that unless he finished this fight instantly, they would capture him. He looked back and forth to where Korra was and the soldiers, a suicidal plan popping into his head.

 _That’s crazy!_ he thought _. I’ll die, for sure. The shouts were getting closer. But I’ll die for definite if they capture m_ e! Mako glanced back and forth one more time, then made up his mind.

 _He can’t keep this up for much longer_ , surely, Korra thought as the tunnel of flames kept on coming. _He doesn’t have that kind of stamina for-_

Korra’s thoughts were interrupted yet again as Mako burst through the flames. Korra didn’t have any time to think rationally, only to react. She brought her hand up to protect her face, but then, Mako just bent over, still running. Korra didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but then Mako rammed into her midriff with his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her knees, and lifted her up onto his shoulder. He still didn’t stop running. Too late, Korra realised what the former commander intended to do.

“WHAT-“ was all she got out before Mako jumped off the edge into the canyon that surrounded the inner city of Ba Sing Sae, taking her with him.

“I really hope you can still fly!” Mako shouted as they plummeted into the mile-long drop. Somehow, he could manage to be sarcastic in a situation like this.

 _Korra, let me out, you’re going to die!_ Vaatu demanded as their velocity increased. She felt Mako clamber around onto her back while free-falling, holding on tight. It was clear what his plan was.

 _I can handle this on my own!_ Korra told the spirit, stubbornly resisting the Avatar State. _I need to do this on my own!_

 _You said that about Bolin, and look what happened there!_ Vaatu argued. _As a result of your stubbornness beforehand, you’ve been handicapped in a fight that you’ve been itching to come for months!_

 _I don’t trust you yet!_ Korra responded.

  
“Uncle Bumi, I have to go now!” Jinora told the leader of the Air Nation's peace effort. “Vaatu has already slipped out once, and I can feel it happening again. Korra is falling off of a cliff right now!”

“Jinora, let's wait-“ Bumi tried, but Jinora would not be denied this time.

“No!” Jinora declared. “I’m going, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Grandpa Aang told me himself!” With that, Jinora stomped off towards one of the tents. She already had all the strapping she needed attached to the chest of her wingsuit, and the marbles zipped up in her pocket.

“Jinora, please, let’s wait until we know everything!” Bumi tried desperately, but his request fell on deaf ears as his niece parted the tent covering, then walked inside. She stood there, a lot less abrasive now.

“It’s time,” Jinora announced quietly. Tonraq and Senna both looked up with heavy hearts, Senna cradling Kalla. They had known this time would come for quite a while now, but that still didn’t make it any easier.

“Can you sense Korra?” Tonraq whispered, not looking Jinora in the eye, instead looking at the ground.

“Yes,” Jinora answered gently. She walked up politely to Senna, putting a hand on the grandmother’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t do this if there was any other way.”

“What if-“ Tonraq started hopefully, but his wife put a hand on his shoulder instantly. They looked each other in the eyes.

“Sweetheart, it’ll be okay,” Senna reassured her husband, even though she was shaking herself. “Korra will be delighted to see Kalla again, and Jinora has been the nicest person to us the entire time we were on Air Temple Island.”

“I know,” Tonraq admitted. He was silent for another few seconds, then took Kalla, and placed her in Jinora’s motherly hands. He helped strap Kalla onto Jinora’s chest, double-checking, then triple-checking that everything was secure.

“She’ll be back within a flash,” Jinora reassured the pained grandparents, then walked out the tent. She went over to the edge of the mountain that the Air Nation was camped on, taking deep breaths. She checked that Kalla was securely fastened one more time, then gazed into the deep cavern below. Jinora mustered all her courage, then jumped. She spread her wings out immediately, and started gliding down the cavern. Kalla slept contently while strapped to Jinora’s chest.

  
Korra straightened her feet out and blasted as much fire as she possibly could at the ground, only two hundred metres away. She had given up on trying to get rid of Mako, just focusing on her survival. Their descent slowed a fair bit, but still not that much.

150 metres. A little slower, but still not enough to save her from an instant death.

100 metres. Considerably slower now, maybe a second or two of pain before dying.

50 metres. She might only be paralysed for life at this speed.

20 metres. A pair of broken legs would be the worst-case scenario, possibly.

Korra put all her energy into the last effort, and really lit up the ground underneath them. Fire roared out of her feet as their descent nearly came to a complete stop. They landed harshly, Mako being thrown off her back, but Korra only got a slight jolt. She immediately air-kicked Mako in the gut, sending him flying twenty metres away.

Mako groaned as he was tossed like a crunched-up piece of paper and hit the ground, but other than that, he was fine. He got up, shaking from the experience of falling straight down for what felt like a mile. He was definitely energised after that. Mako looked up at Omashu, the bass of which was eight hundred metres away. They had obviously drifted a lot in the air. He turned, and looked at his surroundings.

The plain was deserted apart from himself and Korra. A few hundred metres from him was an abandoned water-filtering plant, which sat on the edge of the great Omashu reservoir. The great Omashu reservoir was a lake that was sixteen miles long and eighteen miles wide. No-one knew the depth of it, supposedly. Up until about twenty years ago, it was where Omashu pumped all of its water up, but that had since been abandoned for more convenient methods. There were five other plants that Mako could make out, deserted as well, but they were all spread out far away.

“Admiring the view?” Korra asked, panting. “You should be dead, by all accounts!”

“I really should be!” Mako shouted back. “It’s all thanks to you!” Mako could barely believe that he was alive. That was easily the stupidest thing he’d ever done. What if he hadn’t been able to grab a hold of Korra? What if they had both died? What would’ve happened to Kalla then?

“I’ll make sure of it now!” Korra retorted. She started gathering lightning, unable to focus hard enough for combustion bending. She shot it at Mako, but he jumped away, and started running to the plant.

 _What are you waiting for, Korra_?! Vaatu questioned. _He will have the upper hand in that place. Bloodbend him now_!

 _No,_ Korra replied _. He can’t run forever. If I really need you, I’ll give you a call. Now stay quiet!_

Korra felt wired. After such an exhilarating fall, she couldn’t possibly feel sleepy even just a tiny bit, even if she was exhausted. Korra began to blast rockets out from her feet, but after only a few seconds, she had to stop. The drain that landing had had on her energy was enormous. She couldn’t afford to go flying around everywhere now. She started jogging instead, her broken arm flaring up with pain with every jolt.

After a few minutes, Mako reached the plant, Korra hot on his heels. She would’ve eaten for breakfast any other day in a race, but her legs felt like lead. Mako disappeared in through a pair of doors. Korra, who had been shooting lightning at him the entire time, shot the doors down. They were blasted off of their hinges, but Mako wasn’t hit. Korra wanted to scream in frustration, but knew that would only give him a huge psychological advantage if she did that.

 _Don’t wait for your other arm to get broken,_ Vaatu said.

“I know,” Korra muttered, speaking out loud. She marched up to the doorway and barged in.


	50. The Inevitable - Part 2

Korra peered around at the space in front of her. There were hundreds of crates lying around. They were in towers of one to three, in no particular order. Korra couldn’t see Mako anywhere, as the light was very poor, nor could she hear him. There was a row of windows at the top of the wall, but she doubted that they would let anything in during the day anyway. The hole that she had created illuminated the space in front of her, but it didn’t reach very far, as the moon was covered by the clouds tonight.

“Mako?” Korra called out sarcastically, getting no response. She sighed, and lit a fireball in her open palm, before tossing it aimlessly over the crates directly in front of her. There was a little path which Mako had probably run down, but he wasn’t there as the blue fireball travelled to the other side of the massive room. Next, she placed her hand on the ground and sensed for a heartbeat somewhere. But just as she’d suspected, these crates were made of platinum. The chances were that he was hiding on top of one.

“Fine!” Korra declared, her voice echoing across the plant, which seemed to have been converted into a warehouse, but wasn’t used at the minute by the looks of it. It was probably too inconvenient to protect something so out of the way during a war.

Mako lay flat on a single container, fifty metres away from Korra. His heartrate had slowed down a lot since they had stopped falling, so he could feel his hip getting at him again. It was like an itch right in the middle of your shoulder-blades. Something you could ignore usually, but when you have nothing to do, it bothers you like hell.

 _She’s crazy_ , Mako thought as Korra walked closer in his direction. Suddenly, without warning, she shot a combustion bending bullet out of her forehead at a random container. Mako jumped, but it was far away from him, so he was fine. His burnt hand from blowing up the wall still stung, and he guessed that it might be permanent.

However, when the smoke cleared, Mako's heart leapt as he saw that Korra only managed to put a dent in the crate. She was weakening! His joy was short lived though, as he had to remind himself that he was a human. A dent like that would still kill him.

 _How do I beat this?_ he wondered. _It’s practically impossible to get near her, I thought that this thing was a myth until I saw that lady from the Red Lotus. How did we beat her_? Mako racked his brain, until he vaguely remembered Lin Beifong telling him how they ended the tall woman. _I don’t want to kill Korra though, even if I’m going at her with intent to kill._

He thought hard as Korra started slowly walking his direction, keeping an eye out for any sudden movements. Mako tried his hardest, remembering how Bolin had managed to stun the lady back in Zaofu, but Mako didn’t know how long that would work on Korra. He kept on trying to think of anything, but nothing genuinely helpful came up. So when Korra was only five metres away from him, he decided on a risky plan. His risky plans of flying away from her when she blew up the wall and jumping off a cliff worked relatively well, so this was worth a shot.

Korra walked carefully through the path between the crates. Goosebumps rippled along her skin, making her shiver with nervousness. She was fairly sure that the sound she had heard from the crate was from her imagination.

 _Why would my imagination make sounds at a time like thi_ s? she wondered, irritated. _It’s so inconvenient, this is life or death_! Korra felt her eyelids beginning to get heavy. It had been a long day, travelling on a bus with her head bent down the entire nine-hour ride, starting in the morning around nine or ten o’clock. Then, she flew over most of Omashu in the Avatar State relatively fine. Then, three hours of burning her enthusiasm out with boredom after the talk with King Siya. The fight with Bolin had been very draining, and this one with Mako just kept dragging on. Korra rubbed her eyes, and was unable to stifle a yawn, despite how on edge she was.

 _Now_! Mako thought as Korra rubbed her eyes. He got into a crouching position, then jumped off the crate onto Korra. He hit the young woman perfectly, making sure to wrap her tightly, and they rolled together as she struggled.

“AGH!” Korra cried as Mako suddenly smashed into her broken arm. It interrupted all of her thoughts, leaving her relying on her instincts as they hit the ground. She tried to push Mako off, but he grabbed her good wrist and punched Korra straight in the nose, breaking it. Then, while she instinctively forced her hand in front of her face, he grabbed the water-tribe woman by the sides and flipped her onto her front, so that she definitely couldn’t combustion bend at him. 

Mako started to ram his elbows into the back of Korra’s skull, drawing blood. She managed to slap him off her back using airbending, but that was only after seven or so strikes. Korra slashed fire at Mako, making him have to retreat while she got up.

“Nowhere to run!” Korra shouted, inhaling deeply. She couldn’t possibly miss with combustion bending from this distance, but as she tried to pinpoint in on him, her vision swam. Two blurry Mako’s fizzed in her line of sight as the back of her head became wet with blood. She grunted, finding it harder to concentrate.

 _You’ll die if you use combustion bending now_! Vaatu chastised her. _How long will it take to get the message through to you?! You need my power!_

 _I don’t need shit from you_! Korra replied, although she knew that he wasn’t lying. She could barely stay up on her own two feet, nevertheless combustion bend. She also felt Vaatu slowly gaining more of a foothold on her mind. If she didn’t do something about it soon, he might take over temporarily.

  
Jinora could sense Vaatu’s energy pulsing far off in the distance. She was about halfway down the canyon by now, and had just covered two thirds of the length of the city. Kalla was securely strapped to her chest, still asleep. Jinora’s hair whipped back in the wind as she picked up more speed, anxious to get to Korra as soon as possible.

  
“How’d you know the weakness?” Korra asked, Mako standing five metres in front of her.

“Lucky guess,” Mako answered truthfully, in a boxing stance. “You can’t use your special new skill now, huh?” He needed to make sure that she wasn’t just bluffing, and if she didn’t use it here, then it would probably be safe to say that she couldn’t use it. That plan was a terrible one, seeing as if Mako was wrong, then he’d be dead. But luck was on his side so far tonight.

“You were never one to take chances before,” Korra mentioned, slowing her breathing.

“You can tell I’ve changed, then, can’t you?” Mako asked, deepening Korra’s scowl. “I came here to talk, Korra, not to fight!”

“Shut your trap!” Korra responded, regaining her balance. She emphasized her point by jumping into the air and kicking at him with both feet, two blue fireballs searing at him. Then, when she landed, Korra lashed her hand out at him, creating a wall of air that rushed to meet Mako. She finished off her move by shoving her hand into the earth and sending a small tremor through the earth at him.

Mako waved away the two fire-kicks, which weren’t nearly as hot as Korra’s fire at the start had been. He lashed his hand out, creating a wall of fire just like Korra’s. They cancelled each other out with a _bam_ , but Mako was thrown into the air by the ripple. Korra took her opportunity, and spun, stretching her leg out. She sent an air-roundhouse kick at Mako, and it connected perfectly. He was sent flying into a crate, but he took it well, only letting out a slight groan, and continuing as usual.

Mako easily jumped out of the way of a blue fireball from Korra, showing that he was just fine. He punched a fire-backhand, a fire-uppercut, and fire-kicked at Korra’s thigh with his right foot. Korra blocked both of the punches, but was forced to take the kick. She grimaced, feeling it burn into her flesh. Mako sent another fire-hook, this time aiming for her head, and did the exact same kick as a few seconds ago. Korra was wise to it though, and shot fireballs out of her index and middle fingers to counter them. She stomped on the ground, a block of earth rising up, and kicked it at Mako.

Mako crouched under the block of earth, hearing it crunch against the crate he’d just been sent into. He extended his leg, and swept his foot in a wide arc at her. A carpet of fire rushed to swipe Korra of her feet, but she tucked her knees into her chest as she jumped, the danger passing safely below. Mako got up, and put all his weight behind a fire-hook, spinning around on his uninjured hip. He brought his leg in a circle, and fire-roundhouse kicked at the mother of his daughter. Korra couldn’t keep up with such a high tempo, and was hit right in the gut by the fire-roundhouse kick, having just about avoided the fire-hook. She stumbled back, clutching her gut.

“You’re gonna fucking regret that!” Korra threatened. She inhaled slowly, lifting her entire body up, and the ground to her right started to turn into a red shade. In a few seconds, Korra had a small pool of lava beside her, lighting up a lot of the room. She took her hand off her gut and reached at the pool, pulling up a thick rope of the molten rock. Mako backed away as Korra fashioned it into a three-metre long lava whip. This was hard enough to do at her current energy levels, but it had the desired effect.

 _Fuckin’ hell_ , Mako thought, backing up well out of the whip’s reach. He kicked and punched fire at the whip, but it had no effect against the lava. Mako contemplated running away for the time being, but then realised that this was going to be his best opportunity to get her, while she was still tired. She’d had to use a lot of energy in that landing, and could barely stand up straight as a result. Mako evaded another five lashes from her whip, then started gathering lightning.

Korra dropped the whip of lava as soon as she saw electricity starting to fizz around Mako’s fingers. She waited patiently for him to charge up, then pointing her two fingers at the onrushing bolt as Mako directed it at her. Korra took it in through her body, controlling it perfectly fine, despite only having one hand. She was about to send it right back, when she thought of a different idea.

Mako prepared himself to catch his bolt as Korra stretched her hand out. The lightning shot from her fingertips, but his brow burrowed in confusion as Korra missed altogether, and hit the ground right beside him. Mako covered his eyes as dozens of little sharp pebbles flew at him as a result of the explosion. He glanced back at Korra after only a moment, but his breath caught in his throat as he realised that he’d played right into her trap.

A rock wall smashed into Mako, the former commander taking the full brunt of the assault. He fell onto his backside and rolled over, groaning. Korra watched him lie there until he got up, her shoulders slumped. Neither of them made any attempt to attack each as they stared off, both taking a subconscious breather.

“Why are you making life so fuckin’ difficult, Korra!?” Mako asked, pushing himself up wearily. “None of this had to happen! If we keep on going, one of us is going to die, and I don’t want to kill you!”

 _It is crucial that you shut his words out, Korra_ , Vaatu advised. He was at the forefront of Korra’s mind, almost making all her decisions for her. _You are fatigued, so you will want an excuse to stop the pain temporarily to get some rest. Need I say what will happen next_?

 _I know_ , Korra told him, not bothered to give out about him piping up.

“Well?” Mako asked, getting his hopes up a tiny bit as she hesitated to answer him.

“Go fuck yourself!” Korra declared, and he sighed.

Mako punched four fireballs in quick succession at Korra, then kicked vertically with both feet, two small columns of fire following the fireballs. He started to quickly gather more lightning, hoping to catch her off guard. Korra raised a thin wall of blue fire, which it absorbed Mako’s attacks easily. She caught Mako’s lightning again as it was shot at her again, and thought about going for another diversion, but Korra’s haste got the better of her. She redirected the lightning right back at Mako, making no secret of her intent, but Mako read the move before she had even fully realised that she was doing it herself. He rolled away, and the lightning sparked off of the damaged crate harmlessly.

 _What will it take to fucking get him with a proper shot_?! Korra thought, frustrated. Mako had such a cool and collected head compared to her. She tried to think more slowly and think things out a tiny bit more, but just the sight of him standing there got her worked up.

 _Don’t let him think, Korra,_ Vaatu said. _Go all out, and he won’t possibly be able to deal with your intensity. Don’t think, just do it. He’s tired too, he’s just good at hiding it, like he is with his true intentions_.

Korra didn’t know if she could’ve fought Vaatu’s advice if she wanted to, but she just decided to trust him. She mustered up her energy, preparing herself for what should be the final stretch of the fight if she did everything properly.

Korra shoved her hand diagonally into the ground, and started shaking it while she inhaled sharply. A tremor rippled through the earth towards Mako, only this time it was a tremor of lava. It was a lot quicker than the other tremor too.

 _I have to run from that_! Mako reasoned, and took off in the direction behind him, the lava giving chase closely behind.

Jinora’s heart pounded as she felt Vaatu grow more and more. His spirit had stopped moving though, so she reckoned that it would definitely be under ten minutes until she reached Vaatu, and Korra as well.

 _What am I supposed to do, though_? Jinora wondered. She wasn't able to do what she did at Harmonic Convergence, and was more worried for Kalla than herself. What if Korra was taken over by Vaatu, didn’t recognise Kalla in her rage and lashed out?

“No mother would ever do that,” Jinora muttered, her words snatched away by the wind. “Especially not Korra.”

Mako had temporarily given up on attacking Korra, as he twisted and turned in between crates to avoid her. She had been chasing him on foot for a minute or two now, only slowing down when Mako lobbed the odd attack at her. Mako skidded to a halt and spun around, clapping his hands together. A tunnel of flames erupted between the crates, attempting to swallow Korra up, as Mako started running again. Korra didn’t even break stride, holding her hand out in front of the flames. They were pushed back as she broke through the flashy diversion without any trouble.

Mako glanced back, his pace increasing as he saw her get closer. He took a random left, always looking behind him, but then bit his tongue as he rammed into something hard. Mako looked back at what he had run into, seeing that it was a wall. He looked left and right, but then his heart stopped. There were crates both sides of him too, as Mako realised that he had run into the far wall of the plant, the opposite side of where he had come in from. He backed into the wall, terrified. He got a flashback all the way back to when he fought Kenichi Shinoda, as this was nearly the exact same situation. Korra rounded the crates, and made eye contact with Mako. She was nearly on her last legs too.

“I’m going to make you squeal like a pig!” Korra declared, another voice underlying her tone. Mako’s eyes widened as he got full confirmation of what had happened to Korra.

“Korra, don’t you see, Vaatu’s corrupting you!” Mako tried desperately. This was backed up when her eyes and combustion bending tattoo flickered red. It seemed that Korra was struggling to stay out of the Avatar State.

“ **The only thing that’s corrupted here is your heart!”** their voices responded. Now, there were a number of things Korra could have done right there and then to finish Mako off. Turn the ground into lava, create a slab of earth to grind Mako into the wall, or bloodbend him, if she went into the Avatar State. But just like Shinoda, Korra wanted the most satisfying execution possible. So she took a deep breath, and blue fire blasted out of her feet. She held a hand out as she flew towards Mako, aiming for his neck. Mako knew instantly that if she made contact, his throat would be crushed without a doubt. But also like time against Shinoda, he got a last-second idea.

As Korra crossed the ten-metre space like a bullet, a victorious look of her face, Mako kicked his leg upwards, fire trailing after his toes. Korra's hand was only a foot away from Mako, when she suddenly felt something hot smash into her stomach. She suddenly started flipping, losing her rockets as she turned upside down. Korra’s fingers brushed off of Mako’s hair.

Korra crashed upside down into the wall behind Mako with her back, one of Mako’s last-ditch plans having worked yet again. Mako glanced up, saw her short hair drooping into her face, and took his cue. He bounced out from his rigid position, and started running away yet again, no longer in the belief that he could win this fight. He just wanted to escape right now. He was extremely lucky that she hadn’t used bloodbending yet.

Korra used airbending to cushion her fall, grimacing as her broken arm spasmed out. Vaatu threatened to take over at any second.

 _Forget your pride, Korra!_ Vaatu demanded _. Dead men don’t talk in your world, so he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone of how you needed to resort to my power! He’s a smarter fighter than Bolin earlier. You had your chance to finish him there, now let me take the reins!_

 _This has nothing to do with you_! Korra retorted, resisting Vaatu through pure willpower. She got up unsteadily, and resumed the chase.

Mako hobbled into an opening, seeing about twenty trucks lined up against another wall. He was at the corner of the plant, and saw his opportunity to escape. But he barely managed to make it half the way before his hip finally gave in. Mako’s leg buckled, and he fell. Mako tried to drag himself over, but his hopes sank when he heard Korra run out into the opening after him. The father of one shoved himself up, knackered from all the running he’d had to do after ten days of sitting in a truck. He turned around to face the mother of his child. He was definitely cornered now. There was no way he could keep on out-running her.

Mako and Korra stared off fifteen metres away from each other, Mako ten feet from the trucks. So agonisingly close, yet so far away. Korra's breathing was fast and irregular: she was definitely hurt from that previous crash. She stood rigidly, as if to not cause anything to flare up by moving it. Mako felt like his luck had run out, because there was no way she would be reckless again. On the plus side, Korra seemed to have restrained Vaatu, so maybe she didn’t plan on bloodbending him. Suddenly, there were so many things that Mako wanted to say, as he suddenly thought of a million different favours he owed to people.

“Nowhere to run,” Korra commented, her voice echoing across the vast empty space in the abandoned plant. She seemed too tired to give an angry long speech.

“Korra, you don’t have to do this!” Mako begged. He had always imagined that he wanted to die with a bit of dignity, not showing weakness, but he couldn’t hold it in. “I know that I’ve made one bad mistake, that you may never forgive me for. But if you can just try to ignore me, I'll, I'll…” Mako trailed off as he was about to say something significant.

“What?” Korra demanded.

“I’ll… I’ll…” Mako went on, before going quiet. “I can’t say it. I don’t care if it’s written on my tombstone, but I won’t commit myself to that. I was about to say that I’ll never try and get back into Kalla’s life, but I won’t say that. Ever.”

“Get back?” Korra repeated. She laughed a horrible, wretched laugh. “You were never in it in the first place.”

“Look, Korra,” Mako began, “I don’t want to get back with you. Ever since I realised that Kalla was my daughter, I lost all romantic interest in my life. Every single ounce. I still find women attractive, but I’ve already been selfish enough so far. I just want Kalla to live a happy life, and grow up with both her parents.” 

This was completely true. Though Mako still thought Korra was good-looking, even with the fear-instilling tattoo on her forehead, he just couldn’t look at her as someone he could date. In all of the time he had talked to women casually in Zaofu and Ba Sing Sae, he’d never once thought of any of them as girlfriend material.

 _Don’t be fooled, Korra_ , Vaatu warned.

“I just don’t believe you!” Korra stated, throwing her hands up exasperatedly. “Why should I even let anywhere near Kalla when the first time I see you in OVER A YEAR is when you’re terrorising a city. I guess that you feel sorry about that too, huh?”

“I never wanted to come here!” Mako reiterated. “I only came here to protect Bolin-“ He kept on talking as Korra was about to interrupt, “-just like I want to protect Kalla from now on. Why is that so hard to believe?!”

“Because leopards don’t change their spots!” Korra cried. She couldn’t put the betrayal she had felt into words herself, but thankfully, Vaatu did that for her.

“I’m not a leopard!” Mako cried back. He was really getting emotional. “I’m a human being, who feels regret, and wishes that he could take back his stupid decisions!”

In spite of all that had happened, Korra felt herself relenting a tiny bit. Sure, she had just been trying to kill him for the last half an hour, but even now, he tried to talk things out. Korra wasn’t sure if she would be so willing to negotiate if it was the other way around. Sure, she’d forgiven Kuivera for all her faults, even when Kuivera hadn’t deserved forgiveness, but Kuivera had been a lot like Korra. Mako was like Korra too, in some ways. Maybe… he did deserve a second chance.

 _Korra!_ Vaatu interrupted, flooding her thoughts. _Do not lose sight of your goal! When faced with the prospect of death or physical pain, humans will always beg for mercy to get out of whatever sticky situation they are in! You are above this, Korra_!

 _But it sounds sincere,_ Korra argued _. He was getting upset there._

 _He was upset at the thought of dying! V_ aatu countered _. Do not follow a path of leniency whenever someone breaks down emotionally, Korra! You must be decisive, as you are in a position of power! Do you want this man to hold your daughter_?!

Korra looked at Mako. His clothes were torn, his hair was all over the place and one of his hands was purple from a burn. He looked tired of this mess, wanting desperately to give in and move on. But when she imagined Mako holding her daughter, the memory of him denying Kalla as his child came back vividly to the forefront of her mind. The thought itself made Korra angry, and she clutched her head as everything started to hurt. She felt Vaatu creeping into the driver's seat once more.

“Oh shit,” Mako murmured as Korra started screaming like a hyena. He stood there awkwardly as she broke down, but then, as soon as it had appeared, it passed. Korra looked up at him, and although her eyes weren’t glowing red, they still had murder in them.

“Your time in this world is up!” Korra declared. She pointed her fist to her right while getting into the horse stance, then dragged it across her body until she was pointing the other way. A large crack rumbled in the ground, and bright, red lava bubbled up through it, overflowing. It didn’t quite reach Mako, but he was definitely trapped now. There was no way out, unless he could clamber onto one of the trucks and jump across, by some miracle. But even he used firebending, he knew that he still wouldn’t make it. Mako had enough energy for one big attack left, maybe. If he tried to use flamethrowers as rockets, he’d just fail half way.

But then, a reckless idea came into his head with the thought of fire. Very reckless indeed. So reckless, it would get him killed if he didn’t put 100% on his focus into it. And it wouldn’t even guarantee his escape.

 _It’s better than nothing_ , Mako reckoned, and slowed his breathing.

Korra watched as Mako started to drag his fingers around in the air, conducting a powerful voltage of lightning. Korra could tell that it was going to be his final move. He was about to pass out on the spot, but somehow, he managed to gather enough for Korra to know that she had to give him her full attention. Mako’s hair flew about as he made eye contact with Korra, but both of them had shut out any emotion from their expressions. Only the gritty desire to win, which varied greatly for them both.

Mako touched his fingers together, signalling he was done charging. Korra stared at his fingers, following their every movement. But she raised an eyebrow unconsciously as they pointed to Mako’s side. Only as the first few volts started to travel towards their destination, which was nowhere near Korra, did she realise his intent. If he couldn’t find a way out, he would make one.

The lightning zapped the engine of one of the many trucks lined up right beside each other, taking a moment to sink in. Then, it exploded. That explosion set off a domino effect, and the trucks beside the first one exploded too. Soon, all the engines were going off in a chain reaction. This wasn’t big enough for what Mako had hoped for, but luckily, in the back of one of the trucks, there was something unknown that wasn’t to be tinkered with. That truck alone exploded with flames a hundred times bigger than all the rest, speeding to swallow up the two young adults.

Mako clapped both his hands together as he was engulfed, the fire just about parting for him. His scared hand stung with the contact, but he gritted his teeth and doubled down on his efforts as parts of his outfit and long pieces of his hair got singed. His cheeks rippled with the shockwave alone. Korra, on the other hand, just held her palm out to face the flames. The fire slammed to a stop in front of her, while the rest roared by. She didn’t have any trouble controlling the flame, but it did take up all her attention. She lost sight of Mako amidst the eruption, the orange glow taking up all of her surroundings.

Jinora landed on the ground, just at the base of the cliff that Omashu stood out. She could sense Vaatu’s energy about a kilometre away. Suddenly, a huge explosion burst out the side of a plant, coincidently where she felt the anarchy-driven spirit. Jinora started to air-hop towards the huge orange cloud that was reaching up into the sky, gaining twenty metres with each hop.

“I wish I had my glider!” Jinora murmured desperately. “I could be over there in a minute otherwise!”

The entire time, she kept one arm around Kalla, making sure to land as softly as possible as so to avoid harming the small girl in any way.

Korra followed Mako out of the gaping hole that was now in the wall. He looked behind himself, and cursed when he spotted her giving chase, running by the lake. Mako had only done that because he wasn’t able to escape Korra back in there, but this wasn’t much better. He could run as fast as he wanted, but with his hip, he wouldn’t get far. Korra used a spurt with her rockets to land just ten metres behind Mako.

 _Fuck it, if I die today, I’ll die fighting_! Mako thought. He turned and faced Korra, his fists up.

“Finally given in?” Korra and Vaatu’s voices asked in unison. Korra's eyes kept threatening to break into the red glow, but she held it back. Mako had absolutely no idea why, but he didn’t question it.

Korra pointed her hand to the lake, then flung it at Mako. A barrage of icicles jumped out of the water like a school of fish, hailing down towards him. Mako knew instantly that each one of them could pierce right through him, so he thrust his fist at the onslaught. A weak flamethrower washed over the ones heading for him, and while it didn’t melt them entirely, Mako managed to blunt the edges to the point where they were just giving him bruises when they hit. When the hail had finished, Mako swung a fire-roundhouse kick at Korra. He didn’t expect it to do anything, but surprisingly, Korra was too tired to move out of the way. She took it full on, grunting.

Korra's eyes and tattoo glowed momentarily as Vaatu nearly broke loose, but the water-tribe woman just about managed to haul him back yet again. It was so exhausting mentally to always keep an eye on him, especially as Korra was losing conviction not to just take the easy option. But she assured herself that the fight would be over in a minute or two, and then she could relax.

Korra swept her hand at Mako, and a wave rose out of the lake. It crashed onto the firebender, slamming him onto the ground, but Mako still managed to crawl out of its hold. However, just as he was about to be in the clear, Korra exhaled coolly. The water around his foot connected to the injured hip froze, leaving Mako clawing at the dirt. He tugged and tugged, but was too late in using firebending to break the ice as Korra used a torrent of air to attack him. He was thrown into the air, before crashing into the lake right beside Korra with a _slap_.

Korra entered the lake as Mako resurfaced, spluttering and coughing. The freezing cold water tried to drag him down, but he doggy-paddled furiously to stay afloat. Korra fashioned a spear out of ice, wadding into thigh-depth, just six metres from Mako. She held it up, aiming for where his chest would be.

 _I'm going to die_ , Mako thought, seeing her take aim. Her expression was stone-cold, not showing anything. He didn’t think that firebending would work in this situation, even if he could get his arm above the surface. Now, he could only think of one attack that would affect her. The only problem was, with his current energy levels, it would definitely condemn him to a watery-grave. _I’m going to die anyway,_ he admitted _. So I may as well go out with a bang._

“Any last words?” Korra asked her former lover.

“I love Kalla,” Mako stated proudly, irking Korra. “And I always will.”

Mako zapped the water with the last dregs of his energy, electrocuting himself in the process. He shook violently in the water, drooling uncontrollably. Then, he began to sink slowly under the surface. But the affect it had on Korra was much worse than he had imagined. Much worse for him.

Korra lost her last piece of self-control, dropping her makeshift spear as she was electrocuted by Mako’s final attack. Vaatu stormed her already weakened mental defences, and possessed Korra’s mind. Her body snapped back into a strong, tall stance, as her eyes and tattoo glowed. This time, however they stayed glowing the devilish red that was Vaatu’s energy.

Mako suddenly felt his body being lifted out of the water, the air shocking him back to a half-conscious state. He looked into Korra’s glowing eyes, and suddenly, all of his insecurities came to the surface. Every fear or scare he’d ever felt in his life apart from one, paled in comparison as he stared into those unholy eyes.

A sliver of water started to curl around Mako’s body, while Korra circled her hand above her head. The smile on her face was the most horrible thing he’d ever seen. It's made him want to curl up into a ball and cry. Another sliver of water started to curl around Mako, until he had two intertwining with each other around his body.

 **“You're going to wish that you had died**!” Vaatu’s voice declared, only a tiny hint of Korra’s left.

“What are you doing?” Mako tried to ask, but suddenly, his jaw felt like it was made of bricks. He couldn't move, in a different way from bloodbending. Mako looked down to see a purple sheen beginning to make its way up his body, starting with his feet. He lost all feeling as it travelled up his shins, then his knees, then his waist. A sense of dread accompanied the numbness, like a horrible dream. But this wasn't a dream. The purple sheen reached over Mako’s chest, slithering over his collarbone.

“Korra, stop!” Jinora cried as she got within twenty metres of the young woman. But all it took was one glance from Korra, and those red eyes identified Jinora as a threat. Jinora’s body suddenly jerked to a halt. Korra turned her head back to Mako, having no trouble keeping the teenage airbender in place with her bloodbending.

 **“Prepare to spend the rest of eternity in hell**!” Vaatu’s voice declared, yet still, there was a hint of Korra’s voice behind that message. Mako slowly gave up has the purple sheen crawled over his nose. Then, with one final push, it covered the top of his head. Mako felt the very essence of who he was, his soul, get torn out of his body, as Korra completed the damning ritual. His body slumped.

“Korra, no…” Jinora muttered, in shock, as Mako’s body was tossed out of the lake, onto dry land. His eyes rolled back, and there was no sign of consciousness in the young man.

Mako was dead, and this time, it was for certain.


	51. Down To Earth

“Korra...” Jinora repeated, at a loss for words. The teenage airbender couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Mako’s body lay limp on the ground, motionless. The purple sheen had disappeared, but the effect was still the same. Jinora felt Mako’s spirit slowly start to drift away from his body, to the hell where condemned spirits were sent. There was nothing Jinora was capable of doing to bring him back, that would take an enormous amount of power that she definitely didn’t possess.

“Jinora,” Korra greeted, making out her old friend through the red haze that shone out from behind her eyes. Vaatu’s voice had receded for the time being. Korra felt something in her forehead start to solidify. She couldn’t quite describe the sensation, but she realised that her ability to combustion bend had been cemented. Korra held out her palm, her lust for revenge having been sated, and lit a fire. It was blue, as it had been before, but this now, it felt a lot more natural.

“Wh-wh-wh-why?!” Jinora demanded, hugging Kalla close as Korra released her bloodbending grip. The baby girl woke up with an adorable little yawn. If the scene hadn’t been so horrific, Jinora would’ve melted emotionally.

“Why what?” Korra asked dryly.

 _Do away with the girl, Korra!_ Vaatu urged Korra. His voice was thundering inside of her skull. _She will try to destroy our bond and deceive you!_

 _I’m not killing Jinora_ , Korra responded definitively. _I don’t know where you got that idea from, but unless I have a reason, I’m not laying a finger on her_. All the conflicting thoughts inside of Korra’s head, from just a minute ago, were now gone. She wouldn’t have called it peace, but it was more like a breather. She was able to think a lot more clearly about things than before.

“WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?!” Jinora demanded, not so sure about handing Kalla over now. For the last year, Jinora had been dreaming of the moment where Korra would get reunited with Kalla, as a sister or mother, but this, this was a nightmare.

“It’s a long story,” Korra answered carelessly. “I don’t have nearly enough time to go through it right now.”

“I know most of it!” Jinora replied curtly. “I heard everything about the South Pole and your daughter from your parents! They took refuge on Air Temple Island. I know what Mako did back then, too. But why on Earth did you just murder him!?”

“He was angry at me for taking away Bolin’s bending,” Korra answered. “And he tried to coax me into trusting him by saying that he wanted a way back into our daughter’s life. But it’s highly coincidental that the first time I see him ever since the South Pole, that he’s terrorising a city, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know!” Jinora cried, horrified. “But why would you kill him for just your personal history together!? You’ve never killed anyone before, and you spared Kuivera!”

“Kuivera was trying to do the right thing!” Korra snapped. “And, for your information, I have killed before.” Jinora stared at Korra even more for a few seconds before she spoke again:

“Who…?” Jinora gasped.

“Have you ever heard of Azula?” Korra asked, making Jinora gulp. “She taught me how to combustion bend, but one event led to another, and I killed her.” Korra pointed to her tattoo, which Jinora hadn’t noticed yet, despite the fact that it was glowing too. “I didn’t get any enjoyment out of it, but I would certainly regret it if I hadn’t killed her back then.”

“Azula?” Jinora repeated. She had read dozens of gruesome stories about the hated figure, but the once-heir to the Fire Nation had disappeared decades ago.

“Yes,” Korra reiterated. Her broken arm still hung limply, and she needed to get it looked at now, as well as her nose. The back of her head too, while she was at it. Mako had admittedly put up a tough fight, in spite of all the advantages Korra had brought with her. “I don’t have time to catch up with you right now, Jinora. I need to get my injuries looked at, so if you’re going to try and stop me, let me know now. I’ve always liked you, but if you get in my way, I won’t hesitate to fight you.”

“And kill me too?” Jinora challenged coldly. Korra’s face had went back to a neutral expression, but now a small frown formed.

“No,” Korra answered truthfully. “I don’t want to do that, and you couldn’t drive me to do it anyway. But I wouldn’t think twice about beating you up badly if you get in my way. That would be all on you.” Then, whatever Jinora had strapped to her chest gurgled. This made Korra curious.

“What have you got there?” Korra asked. All Korra could make out was a puff of black hair, or fur, for all she knew.

“No!” Jinora shouted, starting to back away. She hadn’t known what to do when coming down, but now, she knew that there was definitely nothing she could do but run. She began to turn, but Korra stopped her with bloodbending, reaching out with her hand. This time, however, it didn’t hurt, surprisingly. Jinora looked at Korra, who was taking care with her power. It seemed the young woman genuinely meant no harm to her old friend.

“Jinora,” Korra started, “don’t start to play games with me. I don’t want to take whatever you have, I’m just curious. Notice how this isn’t hurting you?”

“Well… yes,” Jinora admitted, realising the sensation was almost relaxing. “But my answer is final! If you find out what I have, then you’ll definitely take it!” Jinora’s eyes widened, and she would’ve covered her mouth, if possible, then. That was quite easily one of the worst things to say to Korra at that moment and time. Jinora knew that. And Korra knew that too.

“Well, now I’m curious,” Korra stated openly. She was about to walk up to Jinora to get a good look herself, but then, whatever it was squirmed around as it became rowdy. The baby, incredibly young, turned around and started wailing, for no apparent reason.

“Why would you bring a baby?” Korra asked, confused. “This place is a war-zone, it’s pretty reckless from someone like…”

Korra’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the baby’s eyes. The world may have stopped revolving, for all Korra cared.

A lot about her appearance was different, like her hair, for example. She now had a full head of hair, contrary to the few strings that had started to come out all the way back at the South Pole. She was also three times bigger than back then, a healthy, chubby baby. There was so much different about her compared to when they had been separated, but one thing hadn’t changed in the slightest. Those eyes. Those twinkling, bright blue eyes, innocent from all the corruption in the world.

Korra wrenched Vaatu back into the recesses of her mind, the glow snapping shut. Jinora broke out of the hold that Korra had had her in, but she didn’t run away. She just stood there as mother and child looked each other in the eyes, marvelling at how powerful an affect someone’s child could have on a parent. Tears began to trickle out of Korra’s eyes.

“Kalla…” Korra whispered, falling to her knees. Korra didn’t want to blink, in case Kalla disappeared. “You’ve grown so much in only the space of a year, I… I… I can’t believe it.”

As Korra knelt there, pure joy filling her heart, Jinora suddenly felt something different in the young mother. Korra had been nearly filled with darkness beforehand, but now… a tiny flicker of light, which had been so small previously that Jinora had overlooked it, started to grow. Suddenly, it began to make itself known, expanding against the darkness.

No: the darkness itself was being converted. Soon, a third of Korra’s body had been retaken in a violent wrestle by the light, compared to only taking up a hundredth beforehand. Then, Jinora felt something start to rub her thigh. She glanced down, but saw nothing.

 _The marbles_! Jinora thought, as she located the source of the constant rubbing. They were vibrating against each other suddenly, so Jinora unzipped her pocket, taking the light-blue stones out. They were practically hovering in the air when she held her palm out flat.

“Kalla,” Korra mumbled for the fourth time in a row. She reached out for her little girl unconsciously, but then caught sight of a motionless Mako just in between them. Her breath caught in her throat. 

_Her dead father is right in front of her_ , Korra thought, now feeling a little unsure of her decision without Vaatu telling her everything. _No, no, I did the right thing,_ she reassured herself.

 _Pour your chi into the marbles_ , Jinora recalled. She didn’t have a clue where to start with that, but she assumed that it couldn’t have been too hard if she wasn’t given instructions. She imagined all of her power centring in on the orbs, concentrating hard. The teenager pooled all her chi into her hand holding the marbles, making a special effort not to airbend.

Normally, when Jinora channelled chi out of her body to airbend, it was different on the outside, compared to the inside of her body. There was a lighter aspect to her chi when she airbent, but here, Jinora made sure that it stayed pure as she soaked the marbles with as much power as she felt she could control. It was like her first time bending again, in a way.

Suddenly, the marbles began to glow a pale blue light, as Jinora kept on pouring her chi into them. The light, although different to that growing inside of Korra, resonated with the force clashing with Vaatu. Then, a pale, blue, see-through human figure appeared, shocking Jinora.

Korra's view of Kalla was interrupted by said figure. She opened her mouth to give out, but then it stayed open, gaping. The figure in front of her was a tall man, roughly about 6’6. He had orange and red robes on, a short beard on his jawline and airbender tattoos on his forehead and hands. His grey eyes looked solemnly into Korra’s.

Behind him, Jinora gasped, falling to one knee.

“Are you okay, Jinora, dear?” the bald man asked, looking back.

“I’m… fine,” Jinora replied weakly, then coughed. “Whatever you have to do, do it quickly, please. I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to hold this up for much more than a minute or two.”

“That should be enough time,” the man said, not hiding the pride in his voice for his granddaughter, then turned back to Korra.

“Aang!” Korra blurted out.

“Hello, Korra,” Aang greeted his reincarnation, with a sombre tone. “I have been watching everything. Things are just so confusing, aren’t they?”

“Yes!” Korra agreed, only realising how much she resonated with the statement until it was said out loud.

“All you want is a happy life for your daughter,” he continued. “This war has nothing to do with you, yet, you were forced by your own conscience to stop it before it got worse. You were willing to go to whatever means you had to in order to upkeep peace, yet still, things are not clear.”

“Mako…” Korra said quietly, “Mako’s death was something more personal in between us. It didn’t necessarily have to do with the war.”

“You could have taken his bending away,” Aang told her. “Wouldn’t that have been a equal punishment to the offence he caused to your daughter?”

“You know about that?” Korra asked. “How?!”

“It doesn’t matter how I know, I don’t have time to explain that,” Aang said. His face vanished for a moment, before reappearing. “We are short on time, so let’s not dance around the subject. Why did you kill Mako?”

“Well, I…” Korra trailed, suddenly feeling nervous. Then, she reminded herself that it was irreversible, and that there was no point lying to Aang. “I wanted to keep him away from Kalla so badly, to protect her from someone like him. I’ve had this built-in mindset where he can’t possibly be good. Just evil. He told me that he wouldn’t ever give up on trying to get back into her life, and I didn’t like that. I learnt how to combustion bend recently, so I’ve been hyping myself up to kill him over the last few months.”

“Another term for a built-in mindset is a fixed mindset,” Aang told Korra. “A fixed mindset can be helpful sometimes, like when you need to focus in on a goal. But the disadvantages of a fixed mindset can be how it affects your thinking. Your thinking can become static, or stagnant, for a better word, and you will avoid constructive criticism.”

“As opposed to?” Korra challenged. She had come too far now to back down.

“A mindset of growth,” Aang answered. “In a growth-orientated mindset, your thinking can improve and move on. You take constructive criticism, and apply it to your life. This is how conflicts are resolved.”

“But I did consider what he told me!” Korra argued. Her good arm fell down weakly by her side, burning with the exertion it had been through. “And I didn’t think it was genuine, what he was saying!”

“Was he sincere?” Aang posed the question, which made Korra fall silent. Secretly, she was starting to think twice about her actions.

“I’m not sure,” Korra told him truthfully.

“Vaatu was manipulating you,” Aang revealed. “He fed on your darkest desires, and amplified them with his energy. Did he offer you advice while you spoke to Mako?”

“Well…” Korra said, “yes. But those are my desires, no matter how dark they may be!”

“Some will just act like they’re trying to help you, whether they be human or spirit,” Aang stated, sympathy in his tone. “I once knew a man named Jet. He manipulated me and Katara to help with his dirty work in destroying a town. Although he was just a product of war, and had a good heart, he had similarities to what Vaatu is trying to do to you right now. Once you become so weighted by your hate that you are incapable of thinking for yourself anymore, he will take over your body for good.”

Korra stood there silently for a few moments, before she realised that she was waiting for Vaatu’s input. It didn’t come though, for some reason though. She decided that she was fully capable of processing this information herself, and contemplated Aang’s words. He _did_ have a point.

“Your false perception of Mako has veered you off your true purpose,” Aang went on. “This perception of your path has led you to believe that everything will be fine when Mako dies, which he has just now. You seem to have lost the fact that you just truly want to protect Kalla with all your love.”

“That’s… that’s one way of looking at it,” Korra admitted, startled by how much Aang was able to tell her with just the bare facts.

“Grudges are what define human history,” Aang continued. “For millennia, we as a race have constantly refused to forgive past grievances. We have always sought newer and more effective ways of shutting opposing opinions down, in whatever manner possible. Some people feed off those opinions, and rise to power. It is always in their best interests to keep those who give them power below them, in this vicious cycle of revenge, so that these select few can profit off of it. King Siya is a perfect example of this, as was his father, King Alphonse.”

“He said that he was open to peace negotiations,” Korra interrupted. She felt lost, and helpless.

“Ever since the death of King Bumi, I always had to keep an eye on Omashu,” Aang told Korra. “Do you know that lavabending is reserved for royalty in Omashu?”

“Kind of,” Korra answered.

“Alphonse and Siya have both taken numerous drugs to make them stronger,” Aang revealed. “But the reservation of lavabending started with Alphonse, not hundreds of years ago. He injected firebender genes into his body, enough to alter his genetic make-up to the point where he could lavabend. He then claimed that it was his bloodline that allowed him to do this, which is a blatant lie to his people. King Siya is the same. He has crushed any resistance to the war effort from the inside because of his ego.”

“So you want me to join Ba Sing Sae?” Korra asked, confused.

“No,” Aang told her, “it’s just a warning. You have already been manipulated by Vaatu, and as the Avatar, you must be above these warlords when it comes to getting them to talk it out.”

“Why is always me?!” Korra cried suddenly. Tears were beginning to flow freely down her face, mixing in with the blood from her broken nose. “Why do I always have to get the short end of the stick?!”

“We were both born with tough roads ahead of us,” Aang said, emphasizing with Korra. “And there are many paths in front of you that can be full of stress and crippling anxiety. But there is one thing that the Air Nomads taught me when I was just a boy, and I know that I died a much happier than I could have died, by taking this advice.”

“What is it!?” Korra asked desperately. She wanted to walk closer to Aang, but Mako’s lifeless body lay in between them, unnerving her.

“It applies to everyone in life, regardless of bending, race, or sexual orientation,” Aang said. “If your outlook on life is negative, then negativity is all you will ever get back. If you don’t find a way to happy when you sleep, then you will worry until you die. You must be the change you wish to see, even if it hurts your pride to do so. Being bitter is a part of life: I cannot find words to describe the anger I felt towards Fire Lord Ozai. But staying bitter is personal. The most long-lasting form of pain can sometimes be self-inflicted.”

“So are you saying that I should forgive Mako?” Korra asked, and Aang nodded. “But I can’t! He’s dead, I just killed him myself! It’s too late for that now!”

“Fear kills growth,” Aang said. Even though he was just a projection, he sat down to face Korra eye-to-eye, who was still kneeling. “And there is still a way to bring his soul back, but only you have the power to do it.” There was a few seconds of stunned silence before Korra spoke again;

“How?” Korra asked, dumbfounded. She looked down to his body, but Mako certainly didn’t seem to be breathing.

“Having your soul torn out of your body will send the brain into a temporary coma, in an effort to self-preserve,” Aang revealed. “But it’s a bit much to even call it a nap. This 'coma' will only last about ten minutes after the ritual is completed. Even if it is reversed, and the victim is saved, they will be incapable of doing anything for themselves for the next three weeks. In that time, their limbs will be immobile, and their life-span, if saved, will definitely be shortened. But it’s better than dying young, no?”

“He won’t forgive me now, though!” Korra told her predecessor. She wanted to break down into tears entirely, but knew that there could be time for that later. “I’ve done my level-best to kill him!”

“Do you remember how Monk Gyatso and I told you to purge the 'darkness' inside of you, way back after you shut the spirit portal?” Aang reminded her. “You’ve probably figured out what that darkness is now, have you?”

“Is it Vaatu?” Korra guessed feebly. “And I don’t really remember how you told me to purge him from my body, you were very vague.”

“We couldn't make out much ourselves,” Aang told Korra. He had a soothing, calm voice, that could put you to sleep if he wanted to. “But what we told you is that you need to be temporarily fulfilled completely, even if it’s just for a moment.”

“How do I do that?” Korra asked.

“You must seek forgiveness from all those who you have grieved of whom are close to you,” Aang answered. “And you cannot hide from yourself that you have dealt huge grievance towards Mako right now, for denying him the chance to spend time with his daughter.”

“I… I…” Korra began to argue, but then her mental wall fell. “You’re right,” she confessed, sniffling. “I feel like such a shitty person! But he can’t possibly forgive me now, how many times do I need to say that?”

“He can,” Aang answered. “Did he ever give you a chance to stop fighting?”

“Well… yeah. A lot of times,” Korra admitted shamefully.

“Nothing can change the past,” Aang stated. “And I can tell by the pained expression on your face that you would love to go back an hour, and alter what has occurred tonight. That is hindsight. But by learning from everything that has happened, you can certainly change the future. You are currently one decision away from a happy life. Not a life without pain, but a life where you are not constantly destroying your self-esteem over past mistakes.”

“But…” Korra started. “I don’t even know how to reverse it!”

“Just use the opposite method to the one you used to damn his soul,” Aang answered simply. “You did it multiple times before Harmonic Convergence, if I remember correctly, so if anything, it should be easy.”

“Grandpa!” Jinora blurted out. “You’ve only got about thirty seconds left, I can’t hold it for much longer!”  
“That’s plenty of time,” Aang informed his granddaughter, turning to look at her. “I choose you specifically because I knew that you were capable of this. You’re doing a great job.” He smiled at Jinora, who smiled back weakly.

“But what if something goes wrong?” Korra asked, numerous different questions tripping over themselves to get out.

“You’re the most powerful being around, even in the spirit world,” Aang answered, turning back around. “Don’t be afraid to fail, and life’s challenges will suddenly shrink when you face them with bravado. If the end result is worth the labour, labour for the end result.” Parts of Aang’s projection started fading out of focus. Korra stayed there silently, until they only had a few seconds left to speak.

“How would you go about ‘satisfying yourself to the full’?” Korra asked, still on her knees.

“We are two different people,” Aang answered, his voice starting to echo as Jinora reached her limit. “But what I am about to tell you is universally true: Fulfilment is measured by the things that not only make you feel good, but how many lives you are able to impact positively by the things you attain. Darkness throws in the void, but always purifies to become light with a righteous heart.”

Then, Aang’s image vanished into thin air. Jinora collapsed unconscious, thoroughly exhausted by the exercise, but even as she fell, she made sure to fall on her back so that Kalla wouldn’t get hurt. She passed out almost immediately, as the marbles in her hand shattered into a million pieces, before they even touched the ground.

Korra would’ve liked to spend a few days at the very least contemplating Aang’s words, but as she got up to hold Kalla for the first time in over a year, she nearly tripped over Mako’s corpse.

 _No, he’s not dead yet_ , she thought. Korra wiped her puffy red face, making sure not to touch her broken nose. _Should I_? She stood there silently for a few more seconds, thinking hard. _Screw it, there’s no harm_.

Korra hauled Mako’s body up onto her shoulder, grunting with the extra weight. Even though he was slim for his height, Mako was still fairly heavy. She trudged over to the shallow part of the lake, and set him down, making sure to keep Mako’s head above the surface. All of her muscles truly felt like lead after such a drawn-out fight, especially since she had stopped running now. Korra stood a few metres back from Mako’s still body, then started circling her hand around her head. A sliver of water spiralled around Mako’s body, and was soon followed by a second.

 _No way_ , Korra thought as the bottom of the two slivers of water started to glow a luminous yellow. She felt something inside of her resonating with the glow, fighting against Vaatu’s energy. _Is it really…_?

A bright yellow sheen started to travel up Mako’s body, inviting Korra to relax with its friendly glow. Korra let the water do the work as it crossed Mako’s knees, then his hips, then up across his torso. The light lapped over the firebender’s collarbone, then turned the amber of his eyes to a greenish-blue colour as it crossed Mako’s eyebrows. Then, it reached its destination by finishing at the top of his hair.

  
Mako floated blindly through a pitch-black space, no sense of time. He couldn’t feel a thing. He tried to call out, but he had no voice to speak with. He tried to feel for his surroundings, but he couldn’t even feel his limbs. He had no absolute shape, to put it simply. He couldn’t even feel pain. The only thing that was absolute was the inevitable sense of dread he felt.

 _What happened_? the former commander thought, and racked his brain (or did he even have one anymore?) for his most recent memories. _Korra did something to me_ , he thought. Mako remembered the red eyes, and even now, he wanted to shudder at the thought of them.

Suddenly, Mako felt himself being pulled back the way he came. He didn’t know where he was going, nor did he know what direction he took to get where he was, but he was definitely backtracking. Faster and faster, yet he felt no rush of wind or pressure around his body.

 _Where am I?_ Mako wondered, but he would never get his answer, as he felt all of his senses suddenly slam into him at once. His eyes flew open, and he caught a glimpse of someone standing in front of him, but then, an overwhelming tiredness swept over him. Mako fell into a deep, dreamless sleep almost instantly.


	52. Sapphire

Mako’s eyelids fluttered open to a cloudy sky. He tried to rub them, but his arms felt like lead, not budging an inch. He tilted his head, and saw Korra playing with something in her only good arm.

“Kugh,” he mumbled, even having difficulty moving his mouth. Korra’s head snapped up from what she was doing.

“You’re awake!” she exclaimed.

 _Is she… happy to see me_? Mako wondered. Even with all the weariness that soaked his body, he managed to raise an eyebrow.

“Kor…” he trailed off. “Kor… rah?” He was breathing hard from just those few syllables. Mako tried to sit up, but found no response from his muscles.

“How are you feeling?” Korra asked.

Mako squinted at the young woman suspiciously. He remembered vaguely what had happened before the purple water ripped his… soul out of his body. That wasn’t the best way to describe it, but it was honestly all he could manage at the minute. He decided to play along;

“Tired,” he blurted out, unable to hold his breath for very long.

“I bet you are,” Korra agreed, then looked down at the ground awkwardly. She pursed her lips, trying to think of something casual to say.

“Was… tha' all… a dream?” Mako asked. He didn’t believe so himself, but why would she be sitting passively in front of him if it weren’t? He peered behind her, and saw the gaping hole in the plant that he had created earlier.

“Nope,” Korra answered. “It was all real. I killed you, but it was only temporary. I brought you back right away, though. I forgive you, by the way.” Korra kissed whatever she was holding. Korra made sure that it was warm, wrapping the small object up in every spare piece of clothing possible to add to the layers it had already come with. Unbeknownst to Mako, Jinora had already been collected by a couple of airbenders. The teenage girl was fast asleep when she was picked up by her fellow Air Nomads.

“Huh?” Mako grunted, but Korra got the message. What he wanted to say was 'why?’

“It took a bit of convincing,” Korra admitted, “but I stopped being so stubborn. You’ve been unconscious there for two hours, and I’m absolutely sure that I don’t feel any other way. I’ve forgiven you, although realistically, after tonight, I should be the one asking you to accept my apology. I’m so sorry for what I’ve done to you, Mako.”

“This… is very… conven…ient,” Mako said, after a few moments of trying to register what she said. If he weren’t so tired, he reckoned that he might have felt shock or disbelief, but he could barely process the meaning of what Korra was saying without falling back asleep.

“You won’t be able to move for another few weeks,” Korra mentioned quickly, as if it was something that had slipped her mind.

 _That makes sense_ , Mako thought, and stopped trying to wiggle his toes and fingers. He felt himself drooling, but didn’t care. He didn’t even have the energy to swallow it. Another few seconds of awkward silence passed before Korra spoke again:

“Do you think Bolin will forgive me?” Korra asked. “I mean, I took his bending away. Even he probably can’t let that go too easily.”

“Actually,” Mako replied, taking in deeper breaths. “I think it’s the opposite. He... seemed to acknowledge… how much of a prick… he’d become. He lost all interest… in the war. Why? Do you plan on… giving it back?” His chest heaved up and down as he began to speak longer sentences. Mako was content to talk for now, as he seemingly couldn’t fight.

“Honestly,” Korra revealed, “not for a while. I may have been under Vaatu’s influence when I took it, but before that, he was really crazy. I can’t let him off that easily, no matter how good of friends we used to be. I’m sorry, but that’s non-negotiable.”

Mako gazed up at a break in the clouds, seeing a lonely star twinkle in the sky. “I hate to say it,” he began, “but that’s a… fair enough decision. How long… do you reckon?”

“How long is a piece of string?” Korra asked back. She had healed all of her injuries to the point where she would be okay for a little while before she got medical attention, but any type of facial expression still hurt because of her nose.

“However long it… needs to be,” Mako answered.

“Correct,” Korra informed him. She was sitting on a rock she had erected, while Mako was laid flat on the ground. “Although it has to be a year at the very least. He was ready to kill me.”

“He’ll understand,” Mako assured Korra. “You know, if you… want to kill me, now… is the chance. I don’t know… if what you said about… bringing me back is true, but… now’s the perfect opportunity.”

“I don’t want to kill you,” Korra reiterated. “Like you just said, if I wanted to, I could do it right now. But I’m willing to forget everything that’s happened so far with Kalla, because I was willing to kill you for one mistake a year ago that you’ve tried desperately to apologise for since. Even if it was really bad, I think we’d both just prefer to move on.”

“I would love… too,” Mako responded, then looked at Korra again. “But I can’t… trust you so easily… again. Not least with… that red glow.”

“I’m working on getting rid of that,” Korra answered. “But I’m fairly sure I can make it up to you.” The way she delivered that line gave Mako the wrong idea.

“We’re… _never_ dating… again, Korra!” Mako stated affirmatively. “Besides, your looks… can literally kill.”

“I didn’t exactly plan on that either,” Korra told him, drawing a curious look from the former commander. “We were a horrible couple.”

“Agreed,” Mako laughed, with a dry chuckle. “Show me… then. Don’t try… to seduce me… either, please.”

“Trust me, that’s not what I had I mind,” Korra told him, smirking. The sombre tone had lifted a tiny bit, surprisingly, but Mako’s expression dropped when Korra walked over and showed him what she had in her hands. “If you could move, I’d let you hold her.”

“No way,” Mako muttered. A tear started to form at the edge of his eye. “No fucking… way. She’s grown… so much. Korra… is that who… I think it is?!”

“This is your daughter, Kalla,” Korra told the dumbfounded Mako. “And from now on, we’re both going to be in her life.”

“Korra… if this is some kind… of sick joke…” Mako started, “please… stop it right now. It’s not… funny!”

“This is no joke,” Korra reassured him, holding Kalla carefully just above his face. Mako’s heart melted, and his mouth gaped open while Kalla opened her eyes. Her pristine, sapphire eyes. Mako was lost in them as his own amber pupils reflected back in hers. “We both have an equal responsibility to take care of her.”

Mako didn’t say anything, his expression frozen, as Kalla yawned. It was an adorable little yawn, and she reached out for Mako, even though she couldn't possibly remember him. Korra slowly lowered her down onto Mako’s chest, where she began to clamber around curiously. Korra watched silently as Mako found pure delight in letting his daughter tug at his shirt playfully. He was marvelling at the fact Kalla was really right in front of him, with no strings attached. It obviously pained him not be able to hold her, but he didn’t say anything. After a few minutes, Korra spoke up again;

“So,” she began, “how are you feeling?”

“I’ve never… felt better!” Mako exclaimed, an ecstatic smile on his face while Kalla tugged at his nose. Korra waited another few seconds before building up the courage to ask what was on the forefront of her mind.

“I know this is very rich, coming from me,” Korra prefaced, “but… do you think we can both move on from right now? Forget what’s happened? It’s okay if you can’t,” she added quickly.

Mako’s smile dimmed a little as Korra asked the question. He thought out his answer carefully over the next minute, before he finally came to his conclusion:

“Honestly,” Mako started, “I’ve got two… main feelings about you right… now: One, I’m extremely… confused, and two, I’m really… really pissed off. I’m… pissed off because you… insisted on murdering me… when I laid my heart out… and apologised the… hardest I have… in my entire life. But even for… someone understanding like… you, that wasn’t enough. If you’d asked… me when I arrived in Ba… Sing Sae, I would’ve gladly… been killed by you if… it meant making it up.”

“Really?” Korra asked, surprised. “You put up one hell of a fight.”

“That’s because… of a guy called Ling,” Mako told her, breathing hard. “I think I told you earlier… that he was killed in… the attacks by Omashu. But I can say… without a doubt… that he is the best… people-person I’ve ever… met. I talked to him… about my dilemma, and… I told him that I... was willing to die. But Ling was… a good man, and he saw the problem… in that, right away. He said that… if I really loved Kalla… then I wouldn’t let… her mother kill me… for the sake of making… up my one… bad mistake.”

“You expected me to kill you?” Korra asked quietly. It was incredibly ironic, but she was a tiny bit hurt. She didn’t start feeling sorry for herself though.

“I just said that… in the event of a… worst-case scenario,” Mako replied. “But no... I never actually expected it. I imagined it… would be like… Lin Beifong getting… angry at you, but a hundred… times worse.” Neither of them spoke again for another couple of seconds.

“So,” Korra trailed off awkwardly. “What are you thinking right now?”

“I would love… to beat some sense… into you,” Mako admitted, his sentences getting a bit longer. “But… fighting won’t solve… anything.” He looked at Korra, making eye-contact. “Let’s move on… with our lives. If you’re willing to… I’m okay… with being friends.”

“Do you forgive me?!” Korra blurted out, hope rising in her chest.

“How the… tables have… turned,” Mako commented wryly, while Kalla tugged at his ears. “But yeah. I… forgive you… Korra.”

Korra felt all of the grievances, all of the tension and bad blood between herself and Mako finally flow down the drain. She began to quiver with excitement, realising that this big long cycle of negativity with Mako had come to a stop. If she was being honest, it had all started back at his apartment, nearly two years ago now. A weight that she hadn’t noticed was finally lifted off Korra’s shoulders, being cast away. But relief wasn’t the only thing that was bubbling up inside of her.

“Korra?” Mako called out as she began to shake. “Are you okay?”

Then, Korra’s eyes and tattoo suddenly lit up, illuminating the surrounding area. The chill in the air was sudden cast away, replaced by the warm, enveloping aura from the water-tribe woman. The last time Mako had looked into her glowing eyes, he felt terror. But now, terror was replaced with a sense of security, just as the red glow had changed to blue.

 _Raava_! Korra exclaimed mentally. _It’s, it’s, it’s so good to have you back!_

 _I'm sorry, Korra,_ the age-old spirit apologised immediately _. I didn’t sense what was happening, Vaatu snuck up on me, and by the time I realised what was happening, it was too late. This is all my fault, Korra! I should’ve recognised it when you bloodbent that old man way back at the corner shop._

 _It’s okay_! Korra reassured Raava. _But… how didn’t you feel Vaatu? Wasn’t he sharing the same space as you?_

 _I was complacent_ , Raava confessed. _I didn’t expect him to come back so soon, and he was very sly in how he went about it_.

 _You were… complacent_? Korra repeated, amazed, then rubbed her weary eyes as the glow faded.

 _Spirits and humans are more alike emotionally than you think,_ Raava told her _. With Vaatu constantly bombarding your thoughts, though, I don’t blame you for forgetting that._

“Is the bad… Avatar State… gone?” Mako interrupted as Korra’s eyes returned to normal.

“I think so-“ Korra began, then stopped herself. Although Raava had overwhelmed Vaatu’s presence, Korra still felt his essence refusing to disappear.

 _You know what you must do to get rid of Vaatu entirely,_ Raava told Korra _. You still have one major feeling of guilt left._

 _You’re righ_ t, Korra agreed, but she didn’t want to worry Mako unnecessarily when he wouldn’t be able to help. “Yes, he’s gone completely,” she lied.

“Does that mean… you can’t… bloodbend anymore?” he asked casually, as if he were commenting on the weather. Then, he struggled not to gurgle as Kalla started tugging at the edges of his mouth. She hadn’t paid one bit of attention to Korra ever since she was laid down on Mako, more interested in prodding her dad’s teeth.

 _Will you let me_? Korra asked Raava.

 _If you need my power, I won’t hesitate to lend it to you,_ Raava answered _. I have absolute faith that you will use it only when necessary. I don’t view bloodbending as immoral. It is simply a subset of waterbending, just as waterbending is a subset to energybending._

 _Thank you,_ Korra thought, then turned her attention back to Mako. “Yeah, I can. I still need the Avatar State though.”

“It’s… unstoppable,” Mako told Korra, Kalla having decided she was bored with playing with Mako’s mouth. “You don’t need… the Avatar State… to combustion… bend, do you?”

“I,” Korra began, then hesitated before resuming. “I didn’t need it.” She lit a fire in the palm of her hand, and it was still blue. However, she didn’t need to concentrate on hating Mako like she had before. It was just how her chi came out.

 _You are healthy enough to combustion bend,_ Raava told Korra before the question had even fully formed in her head _. Just focus on a point in the lake if you want to practice. You needn’t concentrate any of your emotions now._

Korra took what Raava said without any questions, and walked wordlessly over to the side of the lake. She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply and tensed her entire body up. Then, Korra opened her eyes, imagined one particular spot exploding, and a bullet of compressed fire shot out of her forehead. It whizzed across the surface of the lake, before erupting violently as Korra exhaled sharply. The sudden disturbance created ripples that travelled for hundreds of metres.

 _I really just went head-to-head with someone who can do that,_ Mako thought in disbelief as he watched from the corner of his eye _. Never again._

“That didn’t even feel bad,” Korra muttered to herself. Previously, combustion bending had taken a lot out of her mentally, but now, it wasn’t much more than just paying 100% of her attention for more than just a few seconds. “Did I cheat the way you’re meant to obtain it permanently?”

 _Yes_ , Raava answered, and Korra laughed out loud. It was the loudest she’d laughed since her downtime with Kyoshi Warriors, before Crescent Island. She had forgotten how good it had felt, and didn’t stop even when her nose flared up with pain.

“What’s… so… funny?” Mako asked, having to speak up for Korra to hear him.

“You wouldn’t get it,” Korra responded cheerfully, then stretched her arm high above her head. She was tired, but she still had a thing or two to do in Omashu, and that wasn’t rounding up the remaining lavabenders. “I’ll take you to the Air Nation camp, and you can rest there while I get Bolin, and get something sorted. Do you reckon that they’ll let me back in Republic City if it means stopping the war?”

“What do you… want to get… sorted?” he asked.

Korra walked up to Mako and picked Kalla up, bouncing their daughter up and down. “I’ve got business with the King. I’m not doing his dirty work for him. I'm going to get him to negotiate without giving him lavabenders, and do the same with whoever runs Ba Sing Sae. Unless Wu is leading the war?”

“Imagine that,” Mako said, grinning at the thought of Wu fuelling a war effort. “But no. It’s the… Prime Minister… who runs everything… in Ba Sing Sae. That’s the… impression I get… anyway.”

“Are you sure he’s not some puppet?” Korra asked, remembering the story of Long Feng from Katara.

“He was very… intelligent,” Mako informed Korra. “Not smart… really intelligent.”

“You’ve met him before?” Korra asked, surprised.

“I-“ Mako began, but then he stopped talking, and closed his eyes. Korra waited for a second or two, before saying something.

“Mako?” she asked. No response. “Mako?”

It took her a full minute to figure out that he had fallen asleep mid-sentence. Korra checked his pulse, which was fine, then flicked his ear. No reaction.

 _He must be wrecked,_ Korra thought. _I don’t blame him. I guess we can iron things out with Kalla later_.

“Ready to go, Kalla?” Korra asked in a high-pitched voice. The one-year-old squealed excitedly at the suggestion, even though she probably had no clue what it meant. “I’ll never let us be separated like the last year again. Ever.”

With that, Korra’s eyes and forehead tattoo glowed the celestial blue light of Raava. Korra would be doing two trips up and down, as she only had one arm to carry either of them. Hopefully, she’d be able to get a glider at the Air Nation camp, wherever it was. It couldn’t be too hard to find, anyway.

  
Korra strolled in the doors to King Siya's throne room, a sling on her broken arm, but no chains at all binding her. It was mid-day. She’d found Bolin passed out where she left him last night. Once he’d woken up, she had told him everything. Surprisingly, although just as Mako had said, he bore no grudge towards Korra, even when she told him that he wouldn’t get his bending back for a year. The Bolin that Korra had remembered was thankfully back, albeit a lot more mature. He was friendly and nice like before, but now, he didn’t seem to be the type of person to get over-enthusiastic or ahead of himself easily. He was a little bit more reserved, but in a good way.

Maybe that was just the effect of taking away his bending, like how Tahno had lost all of his confidence when Amon took his bending. But Bolin specifically thanked her for beating some sense into him, so Korra was happy to interpret it that way.

Mako was still asleep, and would have to be drip-fed while he was rehabilitating, but Korra had slept a combined four hours last night, a combination of her schedule on Crescent Island and worrying about Kalla. It also took a lot of subduing to keep her dad from finishing the job she’d started on Mako, but he’d eventually resigned himself to waiting until Mako was 'capable of defending himself.’

“Avatar Korra,” King Siya greeted. “Did your efforts last night bear any fruit? I can see that you are quite heavily injured, although you didn’t report back one lavabender. What is the matter?”

“I’m not doing your dirty work for you,” Korra stated immediately. “I did beat a lavabender, so you know. But I’m not handing him in.” Korra heard the three guards behind her jostle, and she didn’t need to be a psychic to know that they were pointing their weapons at her.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Siya asked, getting up off of his throne. “I thought that we had an agreement, no?”

“Our agreement was built on the fact that you don't want this war,” Korra said. She put her good hand on a pillar, pretending to lean. She sensed for bodies in the room, and felt four secret guards hiding at different parts of the ceiling. “But you initiated this conflict with the attacks on Ba Sing Sae. That means that I don’t trust you not to harm the lavabenders. I'm asking you peacefully to appear at Republic City Hall in three weeks' time to discuss peace terms with the Prime Minister of Ba Sing Sae. I’ll let you bring two advisors.”

“When was this been arranged?” the huge man demanded, walking up to ten metres in front of Korra.

“I decided on it last night,” Korra told him calmly. “Don’t worry, the Prime Minister will definitely come. I’ll make sure of it.”

“We had a deal!” Siya shouted. “What authority do you have here? In case you’ve forgotten, most of the world is out for your neck! And how is my safety guaranteed in Republic City, when the last time you were there, you escaped through the spirit portal from the police, hmm?!”

“This war will grow out of anyone’s control, even yours, if I don’t put a stop to it now,” Korra stated affirmatively, taking her hand off of the pillar. Although she projected a cool demeanour, she was actually on high-alert. “Republic City won’t want to get involved with the war, and I still have good relations with the airbenders. And you should recognise my neutrality as the Avatar.”

“What if I refuse?” Siya posed the question. His muscles truly looked like they could be popped just like a balloon, with a pin.

“I may have to resort to unpleasant measures for your cooperation,” Korra told him. “Or unnecessary measures, for a better word.”

“Give me an example of your 'unpleasant' measures,” Siya tested.

“I’ll take your bending away,” Korra told him without hesitation. Instead of giving out, he just laughed deeply.

“I can take you any day, Avatar!” he declared between hoots of laughter. “Sure, look at what just a measly lavabender from Ba Sing Sae did to you! I am the strongest lavabender in the world!”

“That’s a bit rich considering how you injected firebender genes into your body to be able to lavabend,” Korra called him out, which cut the laughter out in an instant.

“Pardon?” the king asked, quivering with anger. The atmosphere had gone from tense to hostile in just a few moments.

“You heard me just fine,” Korra told him. “I know how you’re an artificial lavabender. Now, I’m going to come back at mid-day tomorrow. I’ll expect an answer by then.”

Korra swivelled on her heel, and began walking to the door, leaving even the guards shell-shocked. It didn’t last for long, however.

“DON’T YOU DARE DISRESPECT ME LIKE THAT!” Siya boomed. Korra turned slowly, making sure not to give the impression that she was frightened. “I AM THE KING OF OMASHU, AND I WILL NOT BE TALKED DOWN TO BY ANYONE, NEVERTHELESS A BLOODBENDER! GET ON YOUR KNEES AND GROVEL BEFORE ME, IF YOU WISH TO SEEK MY MERCY!!!”

“Is that a ‘no’ then?” Korra asked, ready to fight. “I’ll resort to whatever means necessary to protect the balance of peace in this world. And I certainly don't intend on doing that by grovelling.”

“THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING, AVATAR!” he declared.

“Is that your final answer?” Korra responded, and that sent him over the edge.

“APPREHEND HER, GUARDS!” Siya demanded. “TAKE THE AVATAR TO THE TORTURE CHAMBER! SHE’LL LEARN TO RESPECT ME THERE!”

 _I guess that’s pretty definitive_ , Korra thought, and started reaching deep down inside herself. _Let’s go, Raava!_

Korra’s tattoo on her forehead and her eyes lit up with the blue glow of the Avatar State. She swept her good arm to the left, and the three guards who were about to attack her suddenly smashed into the wall, past the pillars. Next, Korra brought her hand up, locating the circulation of blood from the four guards on the ceiling. She whipped her hand to the floor, and they all came crashing down, Korra having no difficulty bloodbending them at all. Then, with a simple wave of her fingers, the metal lock on the doors barricaded herself and the king alone in the room. She turned back to him, who was shaking with a murderous rage.

“I’LL SHOW YOU-“ Siya started, but got no further. Korra held her hand out, using bloodbending to subdue him too. She tugged in towards her own body, which pulled him over, levitating. Korra made him kneel down just in front of her.

“ **You will learn to respect my authority as your Avatar**!” Korra declared, Raava’s voice in sync with hers. She placed her thumb on Siya’s forehead, and his eyes widened in horror as he realised what Korra was about to do.

“No, no, please!” the king begged, suddenly trembling. “Please don’t take my bending! I swear that I’ll show up to Republic City! Honestly!”

Korra looked down at the huge man, now blubbering, with a fiery expression on her face. She stayed like that for a few seconds before speaking again:

“ **Very well** ,” Korra agreed, leaning by his ear even though there was no one else around to hear them. “ **But if you back out of our agreement, I won’t be so lenient next time. You will call a ceasefire until the meeting. Understood**?”

“Yes,” Siya mumbled.

“ **WHAT**?!” Korra demanded.

“Yes!” he said, a bit louder this time.

“ **We have an understanding, then,** ” Korra stated. With that, she made all the blood rush to his head, until Siya passed out, unconscious. She let him drop to the floor, then looked back at the doors. She didn’t let the glow stop, though.

 _If I bolt through, they won’t have enough time to stop me_ , Korra thought. With that, she inhaled deeply, tensing her body up, and shot a combustion bending bullet at the doors.


	53. Broken Heart

_Two weeks later, two years on from Chapter One_

It was a cold November night, the chill in the air amplified by Korra’s nervousness. She’d known that this day would come for quite some time now. She was capable of making the heads of nations bow to her if she wanted to, but now, Korra didn’t quite feel the same bravado. Her right arm was still in a sling, but thankfully, the bandage on her nose had been taken off. At least she wouldn’t look too much like a idiot now.

The Prime Minister of Ba Sing Sae had eventually agreed to talks in Republic City, after making sure that the ceasefire was genuine. He didn’t like Korra, but she’d managed to convince him peacefully to come. The peace negotiations would begin in one week. Korra had been in contact with Zhu Li and Lin Beifong about security arrangements. Korra had thought that it would be a horrible, wretched process in getting them to let her over-see the negotiations without undergoing trial first, but she was dead-wrong.

Ever since Fire Lord Izumi had heard that Korra had taken down Azula from a spy, which was roughly about a month ago now, the Fire Nation had strongly fought for Korra’s pardon. It was a surprise, to say the least, but a welcome one. But the person who would be defending Korra more than anyone else was none other than General Iroh II.

Korra had spoken to him over the phone on Air Temple Island. With her sudden appearance, the media had gone crazy, prowling all over for sightings of Korra. Because of that, she’d had to hide in the basement for most of the week, because journalists could really sneak their way into almost anywhere. On the phone, Iroh had expressed his sincere _gratitude_ towards Korra for taking away his bending. He’d gone on a bit of a ramble, but the main point was that he had been 'enlightened'.

But the biggest shock of all was that he didn’t want his firebending back. Korra had asked for him to repeat what he said three or four times, but she wasn’t going hard of hearing. He genuinely thought that he was a better person without it. Korra had had a very poor opinion of him before that conversation, and certainly hadn’t intended on giving back his firebending no matter how forgiving she felt, but now, she was able to think of Iroh with a decent person. He’d made a bad mistake, and she’d forgiven him. Just like Mako.

Speaking of Mako, he was still immobilised in hospital, also back in Republic City. He was able to have long enough conversations now, and could eat mushed-up food. He had agreed to let Korra take of Kalla for the time being, as he could barely stay awake. Their conversations were still a bit awkward, but Korra hoped that they were on the path to being on good terms again, for Kalla’s sake. Once Mako was able to care for himself independently again, he would take care of Kalla on the weekends. He was going to try and be a waiter for the short-term, then figure his life out from there. Jinora bore no grudge towards Korra whatsoever, so that gave Korra hope. That she could finally make up with the one person she had hurt worse than anyone else.

Korra stood there in the cover of the trees, just outside the Sato Mansion. It hadn’t changed at all since she had last been there. It was 8:13pm, the dark clouds threatening to bucket down with rain. Korra had never once spoken to Asami since their break-up, never a proper apology afterwards. Not for cheating on her, nor bloodbending her. Korra took a few deep breaths, rehearsing her lines that she’d been practicing all week. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to write them down, with her good hand still in a sling, but by now, Korra felt confident reciting them all, not stuttering once as she practiced.

 _Time to go,_ Korra decided, and marched out of the woods up the front doors, strolling straight across the lawn. One of the two security guards spotted her almost immediately, and whipped out a sliver of water from his pouch.

“Who’s there?!” he called out, jostling the other guard, who was a firebender, into a fighting stance with fire daggers coming out of his fists.

“I need to talk to Asami,” Korra asked of them. She kept her head down, keeping her features hidden.

“Don’t let the cast fool you, Mick!” the firebender warned. “It’s probably a trick!”

“Take one step closer and we’ll attack!” the waterbender called Mick declared, as Korra came up within ten metres in front of them.

“I’m the Avatar,” Korra revealed, stopping and looking them in the eye. They stood there, startled for a moment, before the firebender spoke up again.

“The Avatar doesn’t have a tattoo like that!” he pointed out. “Leave right now!”

“I don’t want to fight!” Korra pleaded, realising too late that she could’ve gone about this so much better. “Just hear me out.”

“Final warning,” the firebender told her, itching to fight.

“Look-“ Korra began, but that was as far as she got. The firebender punched a fireball at her. Korra grumbled, then equalled it with her blue fireball, shooting it out of her fingertips. The waterbender tried to hit her with a volley of water, but Korra just stopped it mid-air, making it obvious that she could waterbend, then calmly returned it to the guard. She stomped on the ground, making the gravel rise up in a lumpy block.

“No way,” the man called Mick said. “She’s really back.”

“Listen!” Korra announced, raising her voice a little. “I know that you’re both just doing your jobs, but I’m not here to fight! If wanted to break in, I wouldn’t go in through the front doors. Just please let me in.”

“You’re a bloodbender!” the firebender stated, pointing.

“I know,” Korra responded. “And if I wanted to, I could bloodbend you both right now. But I don’t! Just put me on to someone inside there. I want to speak to Asami. If she wants me to go away, then I’ll leave without a fuss. But we have to talk.”

The two guards looked at each other briefly, then the waterbender pulled out a portable telephone he had in his pocket, muttering into it. Only a minute or two later, an elderly servant opened the doors, breaking the tense silence in between Korra and the guards. The firebender quickly informed the servant on what had just happened, who looked at Korra grimly.

“Come in,” he ordered her. “You’re extremely late.”

Korra hurried in after the servant, the guards shutting the doors behind them. “Ms Sato has been in a terrible shape ever since you two broke up, and inconsolably miserable. What you did to her that night was deplorable.”

“I know,” Korra admitted guiltily, hanging her head in shame. She followed him through the entrance hall up the stairs.

“If it were up to me,” the servant continued, “I wouldn’t let you come near the mansion ever again. But Ms Sato has become addicted to cocaine, and is terribly bitter about you.” He turned around at the top, and stuck a finger right on the eye of Korra’s tattoo. He dug his nail in, not intimated by her in the slightest. “You will make it up to Ms Sato however possible. Understood?”

“That’s what I’ve been dying to do ever since that night,” Korra told him truthfully. “This week is the first real chance I’ve got.”

“Bollocks,” he grumbled, but kept on leading the way right up to Asami’s office. It was just as Korra had remembered it, except the doors looked a slightly different shade of red. The old servant knocked on them. “Ms Sato, you have a very important visitor.”

“Visitor?” Asami’s voice rasped out. “But I’ve got no-one else scheduled for tonight. Unless it’s Tenji?”

“No, but I assure you, you must talk to them,” the servant called back through the doors.

“Who’s Tenji?” Korra whispered, curious.

“Her dealer, if you must know!” he snapped out of the side of his mouth.

“Oh, sorry,” Korra mumbled stupidly, fiddling with one of the loose strings on her sling.

“Bring them in,” Asami shouted, and the servant gestured for Korra to go in. The young Avatar took a deep breath, then pushed the doors open, walking in. They were closed shut behind her as Korra stood in the middle of Asami’s office.

“Who is it…?” Asami started, turning around from her window, then trailed off as she saw Korra standing in front of her. Asami did nothing for a minute while she blinked wordlessly at Korra. Korra had changed a fair bit since the last time they’d spoke. She was physically much bigger, even bigger than when she was eighteen, and had cut her hair short again. The main difference though was the blaring tattoo on her forehead. Asami vaguely recognised the type, although she didn’t know where she had seen it.

“I’ve come back to apologise,” Korra announced. “I’ve left it alone for far too long.” Although she kept a guilt-ridden face, she was secretly shocked by Asami’s appearance.

Asami’s skin clung to her bones. Her face was shrivelled, with her lips dry and her wiry, greasy hair ran in thin threads randomly to form a horrible, patchy fringe. The rest of it was tied up in a tight bun. The multi-millionaire had a stained-white vest on, and when she stood up from behind her desk, baggy trousers too. The CEO of Future Industries wasn’t wearing any make-up, although that was probably to be expected if she didn’t think anyone was coming.

“You've come back to apologise?” Asami repeated, walking around to come face to face with Korra. “Oh well, that’s very considerate of you, now isn’t, Korra?” Asami flashed a sarcastic smile, but the dazzling smile that had captivated Korra so often in the past was now soured by a shade of yellow. Asami crossed her arms, also showing off her long nails, and the sickly green veins under her skin. She was so barefoot, but that was probably just something she did at home nowadays too.

“Asami, please,” Korra begged. “Just give me one chance, and if you don’t think it’s good enough, then I swear I’ll leave.”

“Oh, yes, of course, why would I have any reason not to trust you?” Asami jibed. She wanted to know where Korra had got that tattoo from, but was too angry to ask such a casual question. “Go on. I’ll hear you out.”

Korra took a deep breath, her heart pounding against her ribcage. She was sweating buckets. The water-tribe woman started with her planned-out introduction:

“Asami, I just want you to know that words can’t even begin to describe how badly I treated you,” Korra began, looking Asami in her emerald pupils. “But I have to try at least. You really meant the world to me. I found the perfect girl in you, Asami. You were beautiful, compassionate, intelligent, fierce yet sweet, to name just a few of the hundreds of great qualities I was bestowed in a girlfriend. You helped me through the toughest time in my life when all of my other friends moved on with their lives.

“You returned my love, which was a miracle,” Korra went on. “You always backed me without thinking twice, no matter the issue. I often came home late, cranky and short, but you never took offence. You had gone through a stupid amount of personal trauma in your life, and relied on me as someone who would support you when things got down. But I went and pissed on your loyalty by betraying you while you were away.”

“That’s one way of putting it!” Asami snapped. Korra just kept her mouth zipped shut – she had absolutely no right to give Asami backchat. “You don’t have a clue of what I’ve gone through in my life, and even if you preach it to me like you’re doing right now, I can see right through it.” Asami shoved Korra on the shoulder, albeit it was incredibly weak. “When have you ever had someone close to you die, or betray your trust?!”

“Never,” Korra answered meekly. She wanted to say Mako at the South Pole, but she wasn’t stupid. She’d never been hurt nearly as bad as Asami had experienced. The pain of losing a loved one was something Korra was fortunate enough to have avoided so far.

“You know,” Asami continued, “I’ve come to learn the hard way that when you truly love someone, you’re at your most vulnerable. I’d give away every last penny I have, just to be surrounded by my family again. I loved my mother dearly, but she was ripped away from me. I tried to let go of my father, but he won his way back, and just a few days later-“ Asami’s voice started to crack up, “he was ground to a pulp.” Asami walked over to her desk, then marched back to Korra, pacing around the room.

“I-“ Korra started, but got no further.

“I’m not fuckin’ done speaking, slag!” Asami cursed. “Love is a gift, but all you did was give me an empty box with some pretty wrapping. Do you know what I felt the most in the aftermath, for the first few months?”

“What?” Korra asked quietly, sniffling already.

“Confusion!!!” Asami declared, gesturing around the room wildly with no purpose other than to express how strongly she felt. “For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why you had been so kind for over half a year, then betrayed me. That was a real source of agony for a good while! Then I realised!” Asami jabbed a finger right in between Korra’s eyes, the fingernail digging in. “You just love to build people up so you can swipe their feet underneath them and bring them crashing down! Tell me I’m wrong! Tell me!”

“Asami, please, you know that’s not true,” Korra tried to reason, albeit not too vigorously. The scary thing was, Korra saw very little difference between how Asami was reacting to her, and how she had reacted to Mako.

“Bullshit!” Asami shouted, trying to get a rise out of Korra. “Don’t deny it!” Korra stayed quiet for the next few moments, before saying something she desperately didn’t want to tell Asami, but at the same time, had to;

“I think it’s important that I tell you who the father is. You know him,” Korra revealed.

“I knew it!” Asami stated. “I do know him! I always wondered about that! I suppose it makes no difference to you, though, it's just another lie.”

“He’s-“ Korra began, but Asami cut her off again.

“Wait!” she interrupted. “You had a baby, didn’t you?” Korra nodded. “Well, what’s their name?”

“Kalla,” Korra stated reluctantly. She’d known that this part would probably come at some point.

“It’s a girl?” Asami asked, to which Korra briefly nodded again. “You know, I don’t feel an ounce of resentment towards the baby. I honestly don’t.” Asami cupped Korra’s cheeks, staring holes through her ex-girlfriend's head. “I pity her, actually. She’s going to be raised by you. I can’t begin to imagine how shitty a parent you’re going to be!”

Korra tried to deny what Asami had just told her, but she genuinely couldn’t summon up any argument whatsoever. She had done her level-best to kill Mako, and Vaatu’s influence wasn’t an excuse. A tear trickled out of Korra’s eye.

“You’re right,” the young Avatar agreed, taking it to heart. “She doesn’t deserve someone wretched like me. Just like you didn’t.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet and heartfelt,” Asami commented sarcastically. “Who’s the dad then?”

“Mako,” Korra answered, with a small gulp. Asami didn’t do anything for a few seconds, before her smile changed from sarcastic to borderline sadistic.

“Mako,” Asami repeated, clenching her fists. “I can’t believe I never seriously thought of him! That’s just like before, though, remember? Mako always hurting me somehow.”

“None of this is his fault,” Korra stated. “It’s all mine. I broke into his apartment that night when he specifically tried to act like he wasn’t home.”

“Hold on,” Asami interjected, her eyes widening. “Did you… you didn’t… you didn’t _rape_ him, did you?!”

“We were both drunk!” Korra cleared up immediately. “We both had a little too much to drink, and things got out of hand! Although, things took a turn for the worse later on. I tried my hardest to kill him.”

“To kill him?” Asami repeated. Her disgust was momentarily overwhelmed by shock, before she resumed the scowl on her face. “I mean, I don’t care, but tell me what happened! You owe me that at least!”

“Right after I took away General Iroh II’s firebending, at the South Pole,” Korra relayed, “I spoke to Mako, who had come along on the hunt for whatever reason. I’d given birth to Kalla by that point, but hadn’t told Mako yet. I didn’t know when my next chance to tell him, that he was the father, would be so I went for it there.”

“He didn’t know?” Asami asked, surprised.

“He’d found out that I was pregnant from you,” Korra told Asami, grimacing. “But he genuinely didn’t remember that night. So when I showed him Kalla, he didn’t claim her as his own. I sensed for his heartbeat, but he believed what he was saying completely.” Korra’s heart tinged with sadness as she relived the memory, even though Mako had since made up for it.

“Is that why you tried to kill him?” Asami growled. “Of course he wouldn’t believe it! That’s one of the stupidest reasons I’ve ever heard to justify trying to murder someone!”

“I had some problems with my Avatar spirit, which kind of muddled my thinking,” Korra told her, “but that’s not a proper excuse. I should’ve been more understanding, like Mako was when I relented. Even though he’s unable to move right now, and he didn’t really do much wrong, he still found it in his heart to forgive me.”

“Spirits,” Asami muttered, referring to Mako’s condition. “But, why did he come back? If he didn’t remember?”

“He went into the Tree of Time in the Spirit World,” Korra explained. “All of your memories come back there, even ones that you’ve forgotten completely.”

“I see,” Asami said, then shoved Korra again. Korra could’ve stood her ground easily, but once more let herself be pushed back to give Asami the satisfaction. “So you’re saying that I shouldn’t blame it on Mako?”

“Yes,” Korra answered humbly. “It was all my fault. Everything.”

“I'd be inclined to see it that way too,” Asami growled viciously. Then she slapped Korra as hard as she could on the face.

“Agh!” Korra cried out involuntarily. Although Asami wasn't very strong, a hard slap in the face was something you couldn’t just brush off. Asami hit Korra again, then again, then again.

“You don’t know how hard it was for me!” Asami screamed, barraging Korra with her open palms. Tears flowed freely down the face of the engineer, wailing as she struck.

Korra just stood there, not raising her hand to protect herself despite the red welts that were being imprinted on her cheeks. She didn’t even feel the slightest notion of retaliating, that’s how bad she felt. Asami’s nails snapped after about a minute or so of beating Korra.

When someone dealt a hard, personal blow to you, your mind screams hate, punishment, and never to forgive. Korra knew that all too well. It’s hard to forget those feelings. That’s partially why Vaatu was able to influence her so much. Relationships mean opening up to your partner, and trusting them. Asami and Korra had done exactly that to each other. But Korra had spoilt that bond which Asami relied on so heavily. The only reason losing Asami hadn’t hurt so much for Korra is because she only had herself to blame, and a month and a half to prepare herself mentally for the break-up.

If anything, Korra was lucky. Asami had every right to turn Korra away and refuse to speak with her ex-girlfriend ever again. She was very capable of throwing a proper punch, no matter how weak she was, but instead, she was just blindly expressing her grievances. Asami only wanted Korra to have even just an idea of how deeply she was hurt. Asami was angry, and disturbed. Korra hadn’t meant for any of this, but as a decent human being, she had to take responsibility. Asami was one of the most sympathetic and empathetic people around, but even her patience had a limit.

Eventually, Asami fell down onto her ass, no energy left. She was panting like a dog, but Korra was much, much worse off. The skin of her face was redder than the tattoo on her forehead, and would be swollen tomorrow.

“Asami,” Korra began, grimacing with the overwhelming, sharp pain on her cheeks. “I know that you probably don’t want to hear this, but I missed you dearly. I had no-one who really understood me, my personality, like you. For months, I cried myself to sleep about how I had betrayed you. I would’ve sacrificed nearly anything - even my bending - to take back the suffering I consigned you to. If I’d been able to hold your hand through all the pain of childbirth, it wouldn’t have been even half as bad.”

“So,” Asami said after a minute of silence, trembling. Her face was red and puffy, an expression of pure sorrow stretched out on her face. “You still have feelings for me?”

“I still love you, and always have ever since our vacation to the spirit world,” Korra admitted, although it didn’t feel like a confession for the athletic woman. “But expressing your romantic love means devoting it only to whoever deserves it, which was you, in my case. But I rejected that notion, and blindly gave in to my urges.

“You were so cruel!” Asami sobbed, looking into Korra’s blue eyes. “Maybe if you had given me a proper apology, I would’ve been able to accept it and move on!

“I hated you dearly,” Asami continued, “but I just wasn’t able to forget about you! You ripped a hole out of my heart so suddenly that I couldn’t repair it! I hired everyone, from therapists to prostitutes, but they couldn’t even begin to lay the foundation to recover! So I got into weed, and then cocaine! That kept the emptiness away for a while, even if it was short!” Although she didn’t realise it, Asami was beginning to open up about how is she’d spent the time in between their break-up and now.

“Asami,” Korra began, kneeling down to eye-level with Asami, “you are the most beautiful and caring woman in the entire world. I can’t even begin to comprehend the unimaginable amount of pain you went through solely because of me.”

“Do you… really mean that?” Asami whispered after a short pause, trembling.

“I do,” Korra stated without hesitation, maintaining eye contact the entire time. “I don’t just believe that, I know it for a fact. I’ve struggled to keep up motivation or belief in many different aspects of life, but I’ve never once questioned how much I admire you, and I can say without a doubt that I always will. I’d love to have the privilege of being your girlfriend again, but I don’t deserve it. I’m not worth your time whatsoever, and I can’t sleep easily at night knowing that you waste your days thinking about how I hurt you. You have so much more potential than to just be hungover on someone like me. You’re so much better than me, Asami, and I don’t understand how you can think that I view myself as superior, when compared to you.”

“Why?!” Asami cried. “Why is life so hard for me?!”

“I don’t know,” Korra responded, “but I do know that it’s a testament to your character that you’re still able to run a billion-yuan company with all of these personal issues.”

Suddenly, Asami grabbed Korra by the neck, and pulled her in tight. The orphan sobbed endlessly for the next half an hour, cursing every single misfortune she’d ever had in her life. Korra just soothed Asami through it, patting her on the back. Asami dug her nails into Korra’s side, but Korra barely even noticed. She knew how important it was for Asami to get closure on their break-up.

“I’m not even angry anymore,” Asami rasped, her voice hoarse after a while. “I just want to be happy again.”

“It’s okay,” Korra cooed, but then, Asami let go of Korra, and stood up. She wiped the last few remaining tears off of her face as Korra stood up too.

“Are you feeling better?” Korra asked, putting her hand on Asami’s shoulder. The taller woman thankfully didn’t beat it away.

“Can we try be friends again?” Asami asked, both innocently and suddenly. “We always understood each other back then, and I’d like to try and return to that.”

“Wait… yes, please!” Korra said as soon as she registered what that meant, pouncing on the offer.

Korra hugged Asami for a few seconds, before realising what that potentially meant. She really didn’t want to ask the question that popped into her head, but at the same time, she felt that she had to. “Wait, does that mean… you forgive me?”

“Sure,” Asami revealed. “I don’t think I’ll be able to get over our break-up for quite a while, but I know that letting go of my anger is the first step.

“I forgive you, Korra.”

At that exact moment, Korra felt completely at peace with the world, not holding any grudges, or personal debts to anyone. Even Hazukk, who had been responsible for forcing her separation from Kalla. She had moved on past all these degrading emotions. Korra felt the last of Vaatu’s presence finally burn through all of its fuel, and disappear.

_Vaatu is gone, Raava declared._

_That’s good_ , Korra responded, but currently, the only thing she cared about, and the thing at the forefront of her mind, was that she had been given a chance at redemption by Asami.

“Want to get ice-cream?” Asami suggested randomly. Korra broke the hug and looked at Asami, who was then stood a bit awkwardly. “Sorry, that was a little-“

“I’d love to!” Korra interrupted, grinning at the prospect of something small and sweet like that. Asami smiled back weakly.

“I’ve got some in the freezer downstairs,” Asami told Korra. “Let’s go. I’d be interested to know where you got that tattoo from.”

“That’s a bit of a long story,” Korra prefaced as they walked towards the doors.

“We’ve got plenty of time,” Asami reassured her friend.


	54. The End

_Just over four years later_

“How far along are you?” Korra asked, her hands behind her head as herself, Asami and Opal strolled down the pavement. It was a cool, Sunday afternoon. They had all somehow managed to find the time for a walk.

“Two months,” Opal replied, rubbing her stomach.

“I never thought that you and Bolin would settle down so young,” Asami commented. Her lush, black hair was tied back in a ponytail. “You’re both only twenty-six, yet you’ve been married over two years. And to add to that, you’re already expecting your second child!”

“We moved here permanently, then after we got married, everything just took off,” Opal said, bouncing a one-and-a-half-year-old Ling up and down in her arms. He gurgled excitedly. “Not that I regret one minute of it.”

“It doesn’t get any easier,” Korra said. “Kalla was a nightmare when she was younger. She’s a little bit smarter now, but still just as energetic. I'm glad I was able to split the work up with Mako back then. Remember the peace negotiations between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae?”

“How could I forget!” Asami groaned. “Business was so hard to navigate back then in the entire Earth Kingdom. I actually believed that they’d never sort it out.”

“They still haven’t,” Korra told Asami, rubbing her temples. “The citizens of Ba Sing Sae are still angry at Omashu. I don’t blame them, but the tensions won’t die down for another generation, probably.”

“What’s the official agreement?” Opal asked. “I forget now.”

“I don’t blame you,” Korra said, grimacing at the memories of the endless talks. “It took five months for them just to agree to give everything a pass. I didn’t like it, but if we didn’t agree to that, the war would’ve kept on going.”

“You still had to hunt down all those rogue factions, didn’t you?” Asami asked.

“Yep,” Korra answered. “I was lucky with the sentencing. It was so handy that you took back your allegations.”

“I was hardly just going to let you go to jail,” Asami responded. She nudged Korra playfully, and Korra shouldered Asami softly back.

“I don’t know how you two haven’t gotten back together,” Opal mentioned as they wrestled weakly.

“Schedules never worked,” Korra told Opal. “We tried, twice, but it just wasn’t worth the hassle. Also, Asami gave my child bad spending habits.”

“She looked so adorable!” Asami defended herself. “How could I not spend money on her?”

“Your idea of spending a little leftover change is filling my wardrobe with children’s clothes,” Korra reminded her best friend.

“What was the punishment the court gave you?” Opal asked.

“Oh, that?” Korra chuckled. “That was the biggest example of double-standards ever. They gave me a thousand hours of community service, but then gave me a licence to use bloodbending to subdue rebellious groups that wanted to keep up the war! The Triple Threats were, and are, literally so much worse than those people!”

“Did you use it much?” Asami asked.

“Only one or two occasions, I think,” Korra told them, racking her brain, then tapped the tattoo on her forehead. “When I combined this with lavabending, they nearly always ran away. It was pathetic.”

“I think any sane human being would run away from you if you threatened to blow them up with your mind,” Opal commented. “Has anyone ever called you out for bloodbending since?”

“Nah,” Korra answered. “They realised how much they need me, and I haven’t done it since, so everyone’s just forgotten about it. The odd newspaper tries to bring it up whenever they’re trying to sell, but nobody cares, and even if they do, they’re too afraid to bring it up to me. I don’t have any problems walking around or buying something from the shop, if that’s what you’re wondering about.” 

The twenty-seven-year-old hummed contently, stretching her muscular arms above her head. They came up to the apartment block where Mako had starting living in nearly nine years ago.

“Did you ever catch that guy who wrote an article about you first?” Asami asked.

“You mean the guy who was working with the Triple Threats but never got caught, and ran away?” Korra asked. “What was his name again?” She snapped her fingers, but couldn’t recall it for the life of her.

“It was Sukk, or something like that, no?” Asami suggested. “I guess that probably means that you haven’t caught him.”

“To be honest, I haven’t even thought about him in roughly three years,” Korra admitted. “He escaped off to somewhere in the Earth Kingdom States, if I’m correct. Oh well-“ Korra shrugged her shoulders, “-I’ve got more important things to be worrying about.”

“How’s Mako getting along?” Opal asked as they walked in the front doors. “Is he doing okay?”

“Yeah, he’s doing okay for the minute,” Korra told Opal, grimacing. Their fight all those years ago at Omashu had really messed Mako’s health up in the long term. 

Mako had had to learn how to walk and write again, after regaining movement in his limbs. That was the end of it, so they thought, but after two years of working as a waiter for ten hour shifts from Monday to Friday, then a six hour shift on Saturdays to accommodate spending time with Kalla, he’d suffered a minor-heart attack from all the stress, at twenty-six. Korra leant him as much money as she could to help support Kalla, but what she didn’t have a regular income as the Avatar, so it was hard to judge.

“Does he still need to cover his hand up?” Opal asked, concerned.

“Only when he’s going outside,” Korra answered. The skin on Mako’s burnt hand had never fully recovered, and was very susceptible to tearing compared to the other one. Therefore, he had to keep it covered with a glove, or wrapped up in bandages. Mako found it annoying, but it was just one of those things that he had to accept. He didn’t bear any grudge towards Korra, though, thankfully.

“How are his firebending classes going?” Opal asked.

“I’m not too sure,” Korra replied. “Asami, you give a hand there sometimes. What’s it like?” Mako had taken up coaching firebending and self-defence ever since, and he was doing very well off of it. Asami, who had long since recovered to her former beauty after beating her addiction, helped out the odd time, when she was free.

“Recently, the best I can do for Mako is to babysit Kalla,” Asami said as they walked up the stairs. “They all respect him, so he doesn’t have too much trouble running it. He doesn’t spar very often, but he’s generally always working, and he’s definitely making a decent enough salary off of it. If he didn’t have to take care of Kalla, he probably could’ve moved into a nicer apartment by now.”

“If he weren’t Bolin’s brother, I reckon that he’d get a bit more recognition,” Korra said. “I never knew that there were so many lavabenders is Republic City!”

Korra was referring to the school that Bolin had come to Republic City to set up, with his two best friends, Mohamed and Nel. It was named “The Ling Fernandez Academy of Lavabending” in memory of their late friend, who had died in the war. About a year and a half after taking it, Korra had restored Bolin’s bending after she deemed that he deserved it. He hadn’t let her down since.

“Having a good reputation from Ba Sing Sae really went a long way,” Opal told them as they walked into the corridor of Mako’s apartment. He was twenty-eight years now.

“Has Kalla shown any signs of being a bender yet?” Opal asked.

“No,” Korra and Asami answered in unison. They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment, then laughed heartily.

“I really couldn’t care less,” Korra told Opal truthfully after the laughter had died down as they reached the door to Mako’s apartment. “She’s my daughter, and I’ll treat her just the same as I would if she was a bender or not.” She knocked on the door.

“Coming!” Mako’s voice called out. A few seconds later, the doorknob rattled, then opened as Mako appeared. Inside, Bolin was playing with Kalla.

“Opal,” he greeted warmly. “Asami, Korra.” He gave Korra and Asami a brief hug, before walking back to the couch. Kalla spotted the women a moment later, and raced over to them.

“Mommy, Ahami!” she called, running over to their legs.

‘Ahami’ was what Kalla called Asami when she was younger, when she couldn’t pronounce the letter 's'. She had long since learned how to speak properly, but Asami adored the nickname, so it was something that they’d just kept on. Kalla wore her black hair in a ponytail, just like Asami. It had been awkward when Asami had first met Kalla, but now, she was essentially the girl’s second mother, having no children herself. Asami was effectively Kalla’s guardian, along with Bolin and Opal.

“What is it, sweetie?” Korra asked, picking up and cradling her five-year-old daughter.

“I’m a bender!” she declared. 

Asami and Korra’s mouths both gaped open, not saying anything for a few seconds, before Korra managed to speak up;

“That’s brilliant, sweetheart!” Korra exclaimed. “What element? Water, or fire?”

“Both!” Kalla stated triumphantly, holding her fists up in the air. Korra and Asami blinked, then looked at each other, confused, but they both seemed to have heard the same thing.

“I’m sorry, Kalla, what was that?” Asami asked gently.

“You know,” Bolin piped up awkwardly, “I think we should maybe wait a little bit before we jump to any conclusions.”

“Bolin, what happened?” Opal asked, walking over to her husband. Bolin gulped nervously, but didn’t reply. “ _Bolin_?” Opal repeated.

“Well,” Bolin started nervously, “I was showing Kalla a few lavabending tricks, and-“

“ _Lavabending_!?” Opal asked, then slapped him on the head. “I specifically told you not to start playing with lava anywhere near the children!” Asami and Korra both stared daggers at Mako, who shrugged awkwardly.

“Let me show you what I can do, Mommy!” Kalla exclaimed, squirming out of Korra’s arms and running over to the table, which had a few rocks lying on it randomly. Kalla stomped, and raised her fist in the air. And to the women's amazement, the rocks levitated off of the table.

No way. Kalla’s an… earthbender, Korra thought. But then…

Don’t worry, Mako is the father, Raava answered immediately, killing any worries.

“I must have the gene for earthbending inside of me,” Mako said immediately, as if he could read Korra’s thoughts. Thankfully, didn’t seem suspicious. “But that’s not all. Kalla, show everyone what Uncle Bo taught you!”

“Okay!” Kalla agreed enthusiastically. She grunted, concentrating hard for a few seconds, then to further Opal, Asami and especially Korra’s amazement, the rocks slowly melted into lava. Kalla held the lava in mid-air proudly for a second or two, before turning the lava flawlessly back into cold stone.

“And that’s not all!” Bolin declared. Korra and Asami were still gaping at Kalla’s newfound ability. “You know how direct descendants of the Avatar tend to be especially talented benders?”

“I… guess so,” Korra replied. She was still in shock.

“Well, I had a theory,” Bolin started. “Kalla, catch this!” Bolin tossed a spoon towards his niece, but then things took yet another turn. Instead of it flying into her hand, Kalla just held her palm out. The spoon, which was made of metal, stopped in mid-air.

“That’s… incredible…” Asami muttered, her heart fluttering at the sight of the proud five-year-old, who was beaming.

“She’s the first recorded non-Avatar,” Bolin continued, “to be able to metalbend and lavabend!”

“I’m gonna be the strongest earthbender in the whole wide world!!!” Kalla declared.

**The End**

  
_See next chapter for notes_


	55. Notes

This is just a few notes about the story.

It was originally meant to be a six-chapter long story, with a completely different plot, after Chapter 1, I decided to pack that in and go for the second idea in my head. I started writing on May 10th, and only finished chapter 54 on the 26th of August.

I typed every word on my phone, firstly, because my computer is shit, and genuinely takes 10 minutes to start up. The second is that it is so much more convenient to have it on my phone, where no one else can accidentally see it, because I would die of embarrassment if anyone I knew read this and knew that I was the author.

I've put in well over 350 hours into this altogether, 1000 words taking an hour and 5 minutes on a good day. On a bad day, I'd only get 600 words done in an hour. I honestly only took about seven break days, because I became obsessed with finishing it. The side effects of that are that unfortunately, my thumbs are in bits from all the tapping. I doubt this has done good for my eyesight either.

If you do plan on writing a fanfiction yourself, I'm telling you to have every chapter backed up in about three places, like the FF app or email it to yourself. I got lucky that I never lost any of my work, but frustration of that happening would be horrible, I know that. Also, my initial enthusiasm was gone by Chapter 11. It was a bit of a grind from there on out

**Things I'd like to mention about the plot:**

Was originally going to have Iroh, Zuko's uncle, teach Korra how to combustion bend in the spirit world, but when the idea of Azula came into my head, I couldn't say no to that.

I had an idea where Mako would look for his mother's side of the family in the Fire Nation before heading to Zaofu, and meet Korra there, and have a small fight before Mako escaped. I briefly thought I might make Azula Mako's grandmother, but never really elaborated on it, and ditched it after a few days. I also thought about Azula calling Korra the n-word instead of 'seal', but didn't really feel like it.

I originally had Bumi in the Korra v Bolin fight, but answer story progressed I dropped it, as Bumi barely even gets mentioned up until that point. I also thought about Asami appearing in the Mako v Korra fight, but decided against it.

According to Google, Tatsuo means 'male dragon' in Japanese.

I would like to say a huge thanks to everyone that supported the story while I was writing it. I lost motivation plenty of times, but seeing the views consistently go up when I uploaded kept me going. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

One final thing, seeing as we're at the end of the story, if you could leave feedback, I'd greatly appreciate it. If you feel like you enjoyed, thank you.

Also, on this site, I've just realised that my story is 2000 words shorter than the longest. Less than hundredth of what I've written so far. But but that's a part of life, you can work very hard something and fall just short. I'm not that salty, just a little annoyed, but it's kinda funny too.

**Moral of the story:**

Wear protection. That's all.

Signing off,

drummeryu


End file.
